

t'l/ 


Ls; 



MINERAL WEALTH 


A 


AND 




A SERIES OF LETTERS 


BY 


v v 


J. AY. FOSTER, LL. T>., 


OF CHICAGO, ILL. 


* ♦» 


%Xw Hoth: 

JOURNEYMEN PRINTERS’ CO-OPERATIVE ASSOCIATION, 

No. 30 Beekman Street. 



1872. 


m- 



*2 

/ 


























• ?* 





MINERAL WEALTH - ' ■ 



A SERIES OF LETTERS 


BY 

j * 

J. W. FOSTER, LL. D., 

l| 

OF CHICAGO, ILL. 


fork: 

JOURNEYMEN PRINTERS’ CO-OPERATIVE ASSOCIATION, 

No. 30 Beekman Street. 















( 











Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by 
WM. C. WYCKOFF, 

In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 





INTRODUCTION. 


the publication in the New York Tribune of the 
series of letters addressed -to that paper by Dr. J. W. 
Foster of Chicago, a wish has been generally expressed 
to have them brought together in a compact form. They 
have since undergone careful revision, material additions- 
being made to them, so that their statements include par¬ 
ticulars from the most recent and exact sources of infor¬ 
mation. As originally published, these letters attracted 
the favorable notice of the press throughout the country,, 
and elicited highly appreciative expressions from eminent 
public men. It is hoped that in their present form they 
will furnish an available compendium of a class of recent 
facts, an acquaintance with which is essential to the cor¬ 
rect comprehension of a vast industrial change destined 
to affect not only the region in which it is now taking 
place and the neighboring cities, but, ultimately, the man¬ 
ufacturing interests of the entire nation. 

these letters it is shown beyond cavil that the loca¬ 
tion and peculiar qualities of the Block Coal of Indiana 
present a fortunate combination for industrial undertak¬ 
ings which cannot be elsewhere found. The coal-field is 
a level country of extraordinary agricultural fertility. At 
almost equal distances from its center there is a chain of 





4 


INTRODUCTION. 


large commercial cities, situated at the north and east upon 
the great lakes, at the south and west on the Ohio and 
Mississippi Rivers. To furnish these cities with food, fuel 
and manufactures is the natural destiny of this central 
plain, which is capable of sustaining and giving employ¬ 
ment to an immense population. The pure iron ores of 
Lake Superior are on one side of it, and those of Missouri 
on the other; and there is no other mineral fuel fit for 
smelting those ores to which they can be so readily con¬ 
veyed by railroad. This coal and those ores, by their re¬ 
spective qualities, are perfectly fitted for manufacturing 
the best iron and Bessemer steel. There are thus com¬ 
bined in one locality, cheapness and nearness of raw mate¬ 
rials, a singular suitableness of these for each other, markets 
that may be readily made accessible, and a steady demand 
for the product, since the uses of iron are increasing every 
day, and the hour is rapidly approaching when no Amer¬ 
ican railway will be constructed except with home-made 
rails of Bessemer steeL 


QF the result of developing these resources there can 
be no doubt. Cincinnati, five hundred miles nearer 
than Pittsburg to the iron ores of Missouri and Tennessee, 
and also as much nearer the Southern and Western mar¬ 
kets for industrial products, should soon take precedence of 
that smoky city as a site of iron manufacture, since, while 
Pittsburg must send to Connelsville for a fuel that has 
to be coked before it is fit for the blast furnace, Cincinnati 
can have the mineral charcoal of the Block Coal Field at 


INTRODUCTION. 


5 


hand as soon as one hundred and fifty miles of railroad 
are constructed over a level country. The growing towns 
m and near the coal region should be the sites of great 
manufacturing industries, prominent among which is to 
be the production of Bessemer steel. But it must be re¬ 
membered that this mineral wealth—this prospective pros¬ 
perity—will not, unaided, take any tangible form; it will 
lie where it has laid for ages, under the soil, making no¬ 
body one cent richer by the fact of its existence. To 
bring it to the surface and to convert it into real and per¬ 
sonal estate—houses and city lots and manufacturing 
establishments—into active business and profitable indus¬ 
try, live enterprise is necessary; enterprise that puts its 
own shoulder to the wheel, instead of waiting for outside 
help. Bailway development, connecting the coal-field 
with its markets, is all that is needed to inaugurate the 
new era of prosperity. 




























' ' 



























































CONTENTS. 


I. Railroad Development of the Coal-Field, 
II. Range and Extent of Indiana Coals, - 
III. Character and Special Uses of Block Coal, 
IV. Terre-Haute and the Wabash River, 

V. Growth of the Block Coal Region, 

VI. The Future Seat of Iron Manufacture, 

VII. British Ores Failing, 

VIII. Iron Industry of the Northwest, 

IX. The Markets of Block Coal, 

X. American Bessemer Steel Rails, 

XI. Ohio River Navigation, - 
XII. General Review—the Prospect, 

Appendix, ------ 


TAGE 

- 9 
12 

- 17 
21 

- 24 
23 



- 39 
41 

- 46 


50 

53 








LETTERS. 


No. I. 

Railroad Development of the Coal-Field. 

Indiana is rapidly assuming a front rank among the States of 
tlie Union She has hitherto been principally noted for her agri¬ 
cultural productions, h was well known that her soil was fertile, 
that her annual yield m corn and wheat was enormous, that she 
possessed a magnificent body of timber lands, and that her natural 
ana artificial communications gave her free access to the markets 
of the world. But now she is entering upon another phase—that 
of a mining and manufacturing State. This change has been 
wrought by the discovery, m her coal-fields, of one or more seams 
of coal which have, in a crude state, all the properties of charcoal 
in reducing the iron ores, and bringing out a soft carbonaceous pig 
meta 1 , susceptible ol conversion into a tough malleable iron or 
into Bessemer steel. The latter is the severest test wdiich can be 
applied to the various forms of fossil fuel. These peculiar coals, 
to which the term “block ” has been applied, occur near the base 
of the Coal Measures, and can be traced, with occasional interrup¬ 
tions, all the way from the middle line of Fountain County (about 
100 miles south of Lake Michigan) to the Ohio River—a distance 
of more than 150 miles—entirely within the State of Indiana. 
The Conglomerate, for the most part a heavy-bedded sandstone^ 
which rests at the base of the coal-field, crops out in bold ledges, 
and gives to the country a broken contour. Hence, in projecting 






10 


MINERAL WEALTH AND 


the older railroads, this region was shunned, inasmuch as deep 
cuts and fills, as well as high grades and abrupt curves, were 
required. The projectors were ignorant of the inestimable wealth 
stored beneath the surface. Had, for instance, the Louisville, New 
Albany and Salem Railroad been located twenty miles further 
west, it would have rivaled the Reading Railroad in the amount 
of its freights, and its stock would have commanded the highest 
premium in the market, instead of being, as it now is, in the hands 
of a Receiver. It was but recently that the value of the block 
coals became known and appreciated. In 1867, the first furnace 
was built, and soon the erection of six others followed. The suc¬ 
cess of these furnaces, and the wide-spread demand for these coals 
as a domestic fuel, led to the organization of new lines of railway, 
some of which have been completed, while others are in the pro¬ 
cess of construction. 

A brief enumeration of these roads, and of the markets which 
they are intended to supply, may not be out of place. The St. 
Louis, Yandalia and Indianapolis Railroad was constructed from 
commercial necessity, and without reference to the mineral wealth 
which was subsequently developed along its line. The Indian¬ 
apolis and St. Louis Railroad, completed a little over a year ago ? 
runs, so far as relates to the coal region, within cannon-shot of the 
former road. Instead of seeking to develop a new field, it boldly 
claimed to share with its rival in the traffic already developed. 
The Indianapolis, Bloomington and Western Railroad, opened 
within the last two years, crosses the coal belt in Fountain 
County, but thus far no collieries have been sufficiently developed 
to give to the road any substantial freight, although the indica¬ 
tions are that the peculiar seam carrying the block coals has its 
outcrop in that vicinity. The Indiana North and South Railway, 
now constructing, will follow, very nearly, the outcrop of the 
block coals all the way from Bloomfield to Fountain County, and 
thence proceed to Chicago by a direct line. The Indiana and 
Illinois Central Railroad will cross the block coal belt in Parke 
County, and will give facilities for the distribution of this peculiar 
coal for a long distance east and west. 

The Terre-Haute and Danville Railroad, forming intimate com 
nections with the Chicago and Danville Road on the north, and 


RAILROAD DEVELOPMENT. 


11 


the Evansville and Crawfordsville Railroad on the south, affords a 
continuous route from the Lakes to the Ohio River. It has been 
built with express reference to the coal traffic, and hence all abrupt 
curves and steep grades have been avoided ; and it is equipped 
with locomotives capable of drawing trains of forty cars. Its line 
is fifteen miles or more westward of the outcrop of the block coals, 
but it will receive its freights from the cross line centering at 
Terre-Haute. 

The Yincennes and Indianapolis Railroad crosses the coal-field 
of Greene County diagonally, but unfortunately the block coal 
seam wedges out, or has been removed by drift agency in this 
vicinity; at all events no mine of that particular coal has been 
developed along its line. 

The Indiana Mineral Railway will start at Bloomfield and strike 
the Ohio River near Troy, having special reference to the develop¬ 
ment of the magnificent splint coals in the eastern part of Spencer 
County, the best in the whole series of Indiana coals. 

The Logansport, Crawfordsville and South Western Railway, 
just completed, intersects the block coals on Sand Creek, in Parke 
County; and through the Detroit and Eel River, and the Toledo, 
Wabash and Great Western Railroads, will secure easy access to 
the ports on the west shore of Lake Erie. Detroit has her iron 
and copper-smelting works, and Toledo her iron works, which 
cannot fail to welcome this new source of supply of fossil fuel. 

Last in the enumeration, but not least in importance, is the Cin¬ 
cinnati and Terre-Haute Railway, now in process of construction. 
Starting at the great commercial city of Ohio, it will traverse a 
rich agricultural country already dotted with farms, to Bessemer, 
on the White River, where it will bifurcate, one branch going to 
Terre-Haute, and another to or near Sullivan, intersecting the rich 
gas-coals, and thence to the Wabash River, where it will connect 
with the direct route of the St. Louis and Cincinnati Railway 
through the State of Illinois to St. Louis. It will cross the block 
coal region of the southern part of Clay County and the western 
part of Owen County, where the peculiar seam exhibits its widest 
expansion and its greatest thickness, and affords almost unequaled 
facilities for mining. It is confidently claimed by the projectors 
of this route, that the markets of Cincinnati and Louisville can be 


/ 


12 MINERAL WEALTH AND 

as cheaply supplied with block coal as with the bituminous coals 
of Pittsburg and Youghiogheny, and that too without the possi¬ 
bility of a “coal famine,” in case of a delay in the rising of the 
waters of the Ohio. 

Thus, it will be seen that before the lapse of two years, the 
mining of these iron-smelting coals, instead of being restricted to a 
single district, as at present, will be spread over a zone of one hun¬ 
dred and fifty miles in extent; and it requires no prophetic vision 
to predict that, before the lapse of half a century, Indiana will 
rival Pennsylvania in the amount of her mineral products. 

I propose in subsequent communications to describe the range 
and extent of the block coals, and their chemical and physical 
characteristics ; the iron ores, their chemical composition and their 
accessibility to the coal, and the facilities for the distribution of 
their products over widely-separated regions. I was on the water¬ 
shed between Lake Superior and Lake Michigan before the iron 
deposits, which now yield nearly 1,000,000 tons a year, were dis¬ 
turbed by a blast; I saw the Iron Mountain of Missouri before its 
sides were pierced, and when only a few hundred tons of loose 
fragments of ore were annually dug out of the ferruginous clay 
to supply two or three charcoal furnaces; and I was at Brazil, In¬ 
diana, when it was an indifferent railroad station, with a single 
shaft for the extraction of coal, which geologists passed by without 
heeding. In these matters, then, I speak not as a novice. 

, Terre-Haute, Ind., Dec. 4, 1871. 


No. II. 

Range and Extent of Indiana Coals. 

I propose to- give in this letter a brief outline of the coal-fields 
of Indiana, and the position which the block coals occupy in the 
assemblage of rocks which constitute the Coal Measures proper. 
Not less than twenty-four counties in South-Western Indiana are 




RAILROAD DEVELOPMENT. 


13 


underlaid wholly or in part by this series of rocks. The eastern 
margin of this coal-field may be thus defined: Starting at a point 
on the western boundary of the State, in Benton County—about 
seventy-five miles south of Lake Michigan—the line is protracted 
thence in a south-easterly direction to the mouth of Deer Creek, a 
few miles above Cannelton on the Ohio Elver. This is the eastern 
margin of the great Illinois coal-field, which stretches uninter¬ 
ruptedly westward to near the borders of the Mississippi Biver, 
and southward beyond the banks of the Ohio, comprehending 
two-thirds of the State of Illinois, and a considerable portion of 
Kentucky—the total area being not less than 60,Q00 square miles. 
To convey some idea of the magnitude of this area, it may be 
said that, regarded as an ancient lake bed, it is long enough and 
broad enough to engulf all England and to leave a broad margin 
all the way round. 

The greater portion of this area is so deeply drift-covered, that 
it has been found inexpedient to sink through the covering in 
search of coal; hence, the seams are principally mined near the 
margin of the basin, and where streams have swept away the 
detrital materials. . Professor Cox, in his “ First Beport on the 
Geology of Indiana,” advanced the opinion that it is only around 
the rim or margin of the coal basin, and not throughout its central 
area, that we are to look for a succession of thick beds of coal; as 
though the luxuriant growth of plants, now consolidated into coal? 
took place in the shallow parts of the lake, while the deep and 
quiet waters were unfavorable to their growth and accumulation. 
While there are many facts which tend to support this hypothesis, 
it cannot be regarded as definitely settled. 

Becurring, however, to the Indiana portion of the coal fields, it 
may be said that the assemblage of rocks—made up of coarse and 
fine-grained sandstones, limestones, shales, fire clays, kidney and 
banded iron ores—has a vertical thickness of about six hundred 
feet; and in this range are included not less than six seams of 
coal, more or less persistent, each having its own peculiarities 
in physical and chemical composition, and the whole presenting 
gradations all the way from fatty, caking coals, to those which are 
meagre, dry, and non-caking. Appended in a tabular form* is, 


* Appendix, Table A. 





14 


MINERAL WEALTH AND 


in the main, Professor Cox’s section of the Coal Measures of In¬ 
diana, as given in his First Beport. I have modified it in refer¬ 
ence to the thickness of the seams FT and M, as displayed along 
the line indicated. I may remark that, in rocks made up of ma¬ 
terials drifted into a lake basin by varying currents, there will 
be found great inequalities of thickness and great changes in lith¬ 
ological character. A parallel section made twenty or thirty 
miles further north or south, but slightly conforms to this table. 
The latest borings at Terre-Haute seem to indicate that the vertical 
distance between coals F and B is only about seventy feet; where¬ 
as, in the section, it is given as 263 feet. So, too, according to the 
boring in Sullivan County, given by Mr. Collett (Second Report), 
the vertical distance between the seams L and K is 272.6 feet; 
whereas, in the section, it is given as 30 feet. 

The seams L and K are among the most persistent in the senes* 
and range almost uninterruptedly through the entire coal-field. 
The former is rich in volatile materials, and in places, it is be¬ 
lieved, will be found so far free from sulphur as to be fit for gas 
purposes, while the residuum may be used in the form of coke in 
the hot-blast furnace. The seam K is often semi-block in struc¬ 
ture, is not disposed to cake, and, while it carries more or less 
sulphur, is a strong, free-burning coal, intrinsically as valuable for 
steam making and domestic purposes as the block coal. 

Next in the descending order is seam I—the main block coal 
seam, or what is known as the Brazil or iron-smelting seam—whose- 
product has already begun to exercise a marked influence upon 
the industrial pursuits of Indiana, and is destined to accomplish still 
grander results. Obscure traces of this seam have been observed 
by Professor Cox as far north as Warren County, but the point 
where it first becomes clearly defined is on Cole Creek, Fountain 
County (Kirkland’s mine), near the intersection of the Indian¬ 
apolis, Bloomington and Western Railroad with the Indiana North 
and South Railroad. The seam here is nearly four feet thick, 
and while it presents the peculiar block-like arrangement in all its 
perfection, it is more or less contaminated with sulphur. At 
several points in this vicinity outcroppings of this seam have been 
observed, but explorations have not been carried sufficiently far to 
develop its true character. Proceeding southward there succeeds 


RAILROAD DEVELOPMENT. 


15 


a drift-covered interval effectually concealing the subjacent rocks, 
and it is not until we arrive on the bank of Sugar Creek that they 
again become exposed. On one of its affluents (at Barker’s mine)* 
the seam is stripped and shows good coal, three and one-half feet 
thick. At Russell’s, near the crossing at Wright’s Mill, it is nearty 
four feec thick, strong in mixed .carbon, but more or less sulphurous. 
Here it comes quite down to the Conglomerate. Crossing Sugar 
Creek, it is found to emerge on the west bank of Little Raccoon 
at Buchanan’s mine; and also on both sides of Sand Creek, where 
I could obtain no good exposure, the openings having tumbled in, 
but the seam is said to be four feet thick. Next succeeds another 
drift-covered interval, twelve miles in length, having traversed 
which we are brought to the region of Brazil. The seam here is 
from three and one-half to four and one-half feet thick. The 
peculiar qualities of the block coal were first discovered in this 
district, and within the short space of five years it has become the 
seat of an active mining and iron-smelting industry. The qualities 
here developed form the standard of comparison in all estimates of 
value for every outcrop throughout the entire range and extent of 
this seam. It is looked upon as typical of what an iron-smelting 
coal ought to be. The inhabitants of this district would fain be¬ 
lieve that, during the Carboniferous Epoch, Divine Providence 
deposited this peculiar class of coals within a very circumscribed 
ar'ea, of which Brazil is the centre; but investigations lend no 
basis for this belief. Present explorations perhaps indicate that 
the southern part of Clay and the western part of Owen Counties 
are the most favored portion of the block coal range ; but the 
geologist who would assume such explorations as conclusive, would 
be hasty in his generalizations. South of Brazil this seam attains 
its greatest thickness as well as its widest dimensions. In Parke 
County the zone is hardly three miles wide; in the region of 
Brazil it is about six miles wide ; but in southern Clay and 
western Owen Counties it is nearly ten miles wide, and here the 
seam also appears of increased thickness, and while it is rarely less 
than four feet, it sometimes expands to five feet. It is in reference 
to the development of the seam as here displayed, that the Cin¬ 
cinnati and Terre-Haute Railway has been projected. 

Approaching the northern boundary of Greene County, the 


16 


MINERAL WEALTH AND 


Conglomerate is found to curve abruptly into the Coal Mea¬ 
sures, cutting off the range of the block coal, or rendering 
•it difficult to be traced. At all events, adopting the results of 
Professor Cox, which I regard as eminently trustworthy, we here 
pass almost directly from the limestone seam K to the Conglomer¬ 
ate seam A. To account for this anomaly we- must adopt one of 
two conclusions: Either that the Conglomerate formed an ancient 
shore line which interrupted the deposition of the block coal; or, 
that if deposited, the coal has been subsequently removed by drift 
agency. The detrital materials are here so abundant that this 
problem can only be solved by the aid of the diamond drill. 

From the mouth of Eel River to the crossing of the Ohio and 
Mississippi Railroad, there is a gap of forty miles in which the 
block coal seam has not been recognized; but at the latter point it 
approaches the surface and shows a thickness of about three feet. 
Going south, the country becomes covered with detrital materials; 
and, while the limestone seam (K) is displayed as at Alfordsville, 
Portersville and Jasper, the subordinate seam is not detected be¬ 
fore reaching the waters of Hunting Creek, in the eastern part of 
Spencer County. Here it is over three feet thick, and, in the 
purity of its contents, its compactness and its non-caking qualities, 
it will prove the most highly prized of all the iron-smelting coals 
of Indiana. 

Subordinate to this coal seam is another in this vicinity, four 
feet thick, which is emphatically a splint coal that cannot be dis¬ 
tinguished in its external characters from the Brookfield coal of 
the Mahoning Valley, so highly esteemed. Passing over the slight 
watershed between the Patoka and Crooked Creeks, the block coal 
seam occasionally crops out, but in diminished thickness; and, 
where it strikes the Ohio River, near Troy, it is found to have con¬ 
tracted to thirty inches, and although firm and glossy, it carries a 
notable percentage of sulphur. 

Below the last described seam are two others, separated by a wide 
interval, and associated with the Conglomerate or heavy-bedded 
sandstone : B and A. The former rarely expands to over two feet 
in thickness, and, while it is valuable for neighborhood purposes 
by stripping along the line of its outcrop, it will not afford material 
for distant transportation. The seam A occasionally expands to a 


RAILROAD DEVELOPMENT. 


17 


workable thickness, is very dense, and gives a larger percentage of 
fixed carbon than the best Brazil coal, while it is equally free from 
deleterious ingredients. 

These several seams may be approached by drifting or by shal¬ 
low shafts. The dip of the including strata is very moderate, 
rarely exceeding twenty feet to the mile. Its direction is toward 
the southwest. The cost of mining is $1 a ton, and the miner, work¬ 
ing eight hours a day, is enabled easily to take down in that time 
three tons. 

To enable the scientific inquirer to judge of the comparative 
merits of the several seams of coal, and how far, in many instances, 
the same seam varies in quality, the assays of the principal coals 
are appended.* 

Terre-Haute, Ind., Dec. 23, 1871. 


Ho. III. 

Character and Special Uses of Block Coal. 

I now propose to discuss the physical and chemical properties 
of the block coals of Indiana, and their adaptation to the manu¬ 
facture of the highest grades of bar iron and Bessemer steel. 

The term “block,” as descriptive of a peculiar class of coals, 
crept in an unscientific way into the geological vocabulary, but it 
has now become so firmly rooted that it must hereafter be recog¬ 
nized as legitimate. The physical characters of this class of 
coals are these: There are two systems of joints, traversing the 
seam perpendicularly, which cut the mass into quadrangular 
blocks two or three feet long and a foot or more broad ; and the 
miner availing himself of these natural divisions, after having 
undermined the base, is able to pry out the blocks without a re¬ 
sort to gunpowder. lie can easily take down three tons a day. 
These joints appear to have been formed after the materials enter¬ 
ing into the structure of the coal were deposited, and are due to a 
force acting independently of that of consolidation. Where a 


Appendix, Table B. 




18 


MINERAL WEALTH AND 


considerable area is laid bare by stripping the surface, the seam 
resembles a tesselated pavement. Yiewed in section, the appear¬ 
ance is as though block upon block, each of uniform size, had been 
piled up by the hand of man. In entering the drifts, the zig-zag 
appearance reminds one of a Virginia fence. The sides of the 
block are smooth, of a dull bluish color, and are often stained 
white with fire-clay ; but if cleft longitudinally, there is seen a 
mass of mineral charcoal so slightly cemented by bitumen that it 
readily crocks on handling. The blocks are splintery on cross- 
fracture, but longitudinally they come out in thin flat sheets like 
roofing slate. Such are the external characters of the coal near 
Brazil; but farther south, in Spencer County, it is so far consoli¬ 
dated that it breaks longitudinally with a splintery fracture, and 
may be rubbed with a white handkerchief without communicating 
any crock. 

This coal when thrown upon a fire, at once ignites with a crack¬ 
ling sound, and burns with a bright yellow flame, giving off little 
fuliginous matter. It is non-caking, or in other words does not 
run together, thus affording free air-passages. It is so far free 
from sulphur that it leaves behind a white or gray flocculent 
ash; and, subjected to the strongest drafts, it gives no clinKer. 
Hence, it is an admirable coal for locomotives, by reason of its 
rapid combustion, its freedom from clinker, and its disposition not 
to form a hollow arch, which in the fatty coals must from time to 
time be broken up to give free air-passages. These qualities, 
too, insure the integrity of the grate bars. The coal is sufficiently 
firm to hold up the burden of a furnace, and the only inconven¬ 
ience it offers is in the amount of “dust, ’ or fine particles of mineral 
charcoal which are nearly incombustible. This inconvenience ap¬ 
pertains to the coals at present used in the blast furnace, but 
would be absent in the more compressed coals before relerred to. 
From careful assays it is ascertained that this class of coals gives 
from 57 to 62 per cent, of fixed carbon, a small amount of hy- 
grometric moisture, and a small amount of ash, whose whitish 
and flocculent character would indicate the comparative absence 
of the bi-sulphuret of iron. 

The Pittsburg coals differ very slightly in chemical composi 
tion from the block coals of Indiana, and yet we know that they 


RAILROAD DEVELOPMENT. 


19 


behave altogether differently in combustion.* The latter will make 


iron in a crude state, while the former require that the volatile 


materials be expelled, the residue being used in the form of coke. 
This difference is due, probably, to the mechanical texture of the 
coal rather than to its chemical composition. In the case of the 
block coals there are thin partitions of a cannel-like nature which 
prevent the cells filled with bitumen from coalescing and render- 
ins: the whole mass tumid. 

o 

That the volatile materials play an important part in the com¬ 
bustion of coal cannot at this day be denied. Formerly it was 
supposed that the heating power of coals was dependent on the 
amount of fixed carbon which they contained ; but later investiga¬ 
tions show that we must take into consideration the calorific power 
of hydrogen, carbon and sulphur, as well as the indirect influences 
of nitrogen, watery vapor and oxygen. To estimate the effects 
of all these ingredients, it is necessary that we possess ultimate 
analyses of our coals, but unfortunately this process has not 
been carried out sufficiently to afford us the means of extended 
■comparison. This, however, may be confidently affirmed, that 
coals rich in volatile materials excel in evaporative power al¬ 
though they may fall below in elevation of temperature. The 
best block coals fall but a few degrees below pure charcoal in 
calorific intensity. So far as relates to the presence of the delete¬ 
rious elements of sulphur and phosphorus in the block coals, 
little has been done by chemists to estimate the quantity. In fact, 
this remark will apply to most of the existing assays of coal in the 
United States. I requested Professor Delafontaine, a gentleman 
every way competent to enter upon this investigation, to apply the 
most delicate tests to the splint variety of the Brazil seam occur¬ 
ring in the western part of Spencer County, and specimens were 
selected from what is known as the Staab Mine for that purpose. 


* Wormley gives the following assa}^ of (i) Youghiogheny, and (u) Briar 
Hill, Veatch’s Mine, coals; the first being a caking, and the second a non-cak¬ 
ing coal. 

Aen. Moisture; Volatile Matter. Fixed Carbon. 



0 . 1)0 

2.47 



06.85 =100 

04.25 =100 


I 

II. 




20 


MINERAL WEALTH AND 


The assay of two specimens of this coal by the ordinary method 
gave the following results : 

Water at 212° F. 1.86 8.91 

Fixed carbon.58.26 62.81 

Volatile matter.87.11 80.84 

Ash, white. 2.80 2.44 

Two and one-half ounces of this coal were submitted to distil¬ 
lation in a closed vessel, with the following result : 


Coke.63.05 

Tar, approximatively.15.80 

Water, ditto .15.11 

Gas. 5.97 


The water contained ammonia and other soluble chemicals, be- 
sides a small amount of hydrosulphate of ammonia. The amount 
of phosphoric acid was 0.3, and the amount of sulphuric acid was 
0 . 0 . 

Compared with the English coals of Pontypool, Bedwas, and 
Ebbw Vale, the amount of phosphoric acid was far greater in 
every instance ; and while in the English coals there was a nota¬ 
ble percentage of sulphur, in the Staab coal there was an entire 
absence. Comparing these results with the amount of phosphoric 
acid contained in the ashes of elm, oak and apple-tree wood, the 
result is, that while the Staab coal contains 0.3 per cent, of this 
deleterious ingredient, those woods contain all the way from 
4.19 to 9.61 per cent. Thus it will be seen that there are coals in 
the Indiana field, which are freer from the element of phosphorus, 
so deleterious to iron making, than charcoal itself. The same rig¬ 
orous tests ought to be extended to every portion of the Brazil 
seam. 

These block coals, we know from experience, when tested in a 
blast furnace, have all the qualities of charcoal as a reducing agent. 
Two and a half tons of coal are required to make a ton of iron. 
The Brazil coals are not quite as strong in fixed carbon as the 
Mahoning or the Shenango coals, but they produce a more highly 
esteemed pig metal. What Mushet said in his great work on Iron, 
in reference to the best variety of Welsh coal, is applicable in 
every sense to the block coal of Indiana : 










RAILROAD DEVELOPMENT. 


21 


“ To the purity of splint coal it unites all the softness and combustibility of 
wood, and the effects produced by it in the blast furnace, either as to the qual¬ 
ity or quantity of iron, far exceed anything in the manufacture of that metal 
with charcoal.” 

Professor Cox, in charge of the Geological Survey of the State 
of Indiana, bears the following emphatic testimony as to the qual¬ 
ity of these coals for iron smelting : 

“Without fear of contradiction, I pronounce the block coal of Indiana 
the best mineral fuel yet known to the world for the manufacture of pig metal, 
bar iron or steel. In the blast furnaces, it produces a metal in every respect 
equal to the best charcoal iron made from the same ores. In the puddling fur¬ 
nace a less quantity of block coals is required than of the best Pittsburg Coals 
to make a run of bar or wrought iron. The bars are brought off in a shorter 
space of time and the quality of the iron is better. The gray pig iron, made 
with raw block coal, in Clay County, from a mixture of Lake Superior and 
Missouri haematite ores, is used with excellent results in the manufacture of 
Bessemer Steel at Chicago. Mr. Robinson, the Superintendent of the Union 
Rolling Mills there, writes that ‘the Indiana coal seems to be just the thing 
for steel.’ ” 

It is a significant fact, that the puddled iron made at Indianapolis 
from block coal pig, is employed at Pittsburg in forging gun bar¬ 
rels. 

Terre-Haute, December 12, 1871. 


No. IY. 

Terre-Haute and Wabash River □ 

The Cit} r of Terre-Haute derives its name from the high ground 
on which it is founded. The French voyageurs who gathered at 
Vincennes as far back as 1705, wandered up the Wabash and ap¬ 
plied this name to an Indian village which was three miles south 
of the present town. The site is a beautiful one, being on a 
plateau about sixty feet above the river, sloping in every direction 
so as to admit of easy drainage, and the river may be made avail¬ 
able to supply the inhabitants with an abundance of good water. 

The town was organized in 1816, and the fact of its situation 
on the line of the Great National Road, a stupendous scheme in 
its day, and of which Henry Clay was the projector, gave to this 
place a prospective importance. What, however, led to its sub- 



22 


MINERAL WEALTH AND 


stantial growth was the completion, in 1852, of the Terre-Haute 
and Indianapolis Kailroad, and the subsequent extension of that 
road to St. Louis, thus fixing Terre-Haute as an imporant point 
on one of the great thoroughfares of traffic between the seaboard 
and the Mississippi Valley, and at the same time'rendering tribut¬ 
ary for manufacturing purposes the block coal region of Brazil, 
lying sixteen miles to the east. Up to that time the population 
of Terre-Haute accumulated in thirty-five jears, barely reached 
4,000. In 1860 it had risen to 8,594; at the present time it is not 
far from 20,000, and is rapidly increasing. Since the completion of 
the Terre-Haute and Indianapolis Kailroad there have been put in 
operation the following routes, which bear directly on the com¬ 
merce of this city : The St. Louis,- Vandalia and Terre-Haute ; the 
St. Louis and Indianapolis, essentially a rival line running to the 
same principal points; the Evansville and Crawfordsville; and the 
Terre-Haute and Danville. Some miles are constructed of the 
Cincinnati and Terre-Haute Kailway, to the stock of which the 
city has voted a subscription of $100,000, thus evincing her dis¬ 
position to open new avenues of trade. 

By these routes Terre-Haute has direct access to the Lakes, to 
the Ohio and Mississippi Kivers, and to the seaboard. She is dis¬ 
tant from Chicago 180 miles; from St. Louis, 165 ; from Cincin¬ 
nati, 180 miles, and from Louisville, 150 miles—the last two dis¬ 
tances being computed by the Cincinnati and Terre-IIaute route. 
Thus, then, it will be seen that there is room here for the growth 
of another inland city, and I know of no place which has stronger 
claims to assume such a position than Terre-IIaute. She is sur¬ 
rounded by a country fertile almost beyond comparison, and much 
of it is clothed with a magnificent forest growth. The \Yabash 
Valley has long been known as furnishing the best corn lands in 
the United States, and the uplands produce good Winter wheat. 
The forests yield abundant materials for railroad ties, and a great 
variety of hard-wood lumber, suitable for railway cars, wagon ma¬ 
terials, coopers’ materials and agricultural implements ; nor are 
there wanting the ornamental woods, such as black walnut, cherry, 
ash and honey locust. The city is bedded on coal, which crops 
out both to the east and west, and sixteen miles eastward is the 
great block coal field. The union between the specular iron ores 


RAILROAD DEVELOPMENT. 


23 


of Missouri and Lake Superior and the block coals of Indiana (‘an 
be effected here as cheaply as at any other point, and the Wabash 
River affords an unfailing supply of water for furnace and other 
manufacturing purposes. An iron furnace, under the superin¬ 
tendence of Mr. A. L. Crawford, with a daily capacity of turning 
out twenty-five tons of pig-metal, is already in successful opera¬ 
tion. There is a rolling-mill, with a nail factory attached, with a 
capacity to manufacture 1,800 kegs of nails a week, and also a 
glass factory. 

Main street is substantially built for the most part of brick, but 
the fronts of many buildings are of Ellettsville limestone, a free- 
cutting stone of an agreeable tint and great durability, and capable 
of any degree of ornamentation. It is, in fact, one of the most 
desirable stones for construction to be found in the United States. 
Many of the private residences, with their surrounding walks 
and shrubbery, indicate a spirit of taste and refinement on the 
part of their owners. The State Normal School is situated here, 
and the building, of brick, with stone trimmings, in the midst of 
a square, presents an attractive appearance. The Opera House 
and Dowling’s Hall, both tastefully built and adorned, afford com¬ 
modious quarters for popular amusements. The public school 
buildings are also worthy of commendation, and evince that the 
people are not neglectful of the interests of education. To the 
members of the American Association for the Advancement of 
Science, on the occasion of their visit to this place last Summer, 
the citizens extended a magnificent reception. 

With regard to the importance of the Wabash River as a great 
artery of trade, I am not profoundly impressed. In early days it 
was a great channel of communication with the exterior world, 
when flat-boats and keel-boats were the principle vehicles ot trans¬ 
portation. This stream, like the Ohio, each year, as its sources 
are cleared, and its swamps drained, appears to flow with dimin¬ 
ished volume. A survey with reference to the improvement of its 
navigation has just been completed, under direction of the United 
States Topographical Bureau, and the plan contemplated fe to 
remove the snags and sawyers, and excavate channels through the 
sand bars. This plan, while it might remove many impediments, 
would not increase, but rather diminish, the average depth of 


24 


MINERAL WEALTH AND 


water, by permitting it to flow more freely, and when completed 
would only admit of the free navigation of the river for a limited 
portion of the year by steamers of small capacity. To slack-water 
the river would be impracticable, for the intervales bordering 'the 
stream are broad, and large tracts of rich land now cultivated 
would be inundated and rendered valueless. The only feasible 
method to render the Wabash thoroughly navigable, is to imitate 
what is now doing in the neighboring State of Illinois—to start at 
the head of Lake Michigan, say Michigan Cit} r , and cut a canal 
at least one hundred feet broad on the bottom, to the northernmost 
bend of the Wabash, and use a portion of the waters of that great 
reservoir to keep the river in a boatable condition, except when 
closed by ice. There is a growing disposition on the part of the 
people to restrain Congress from embarking in schemes of internal 
improvement designed to benefit particular sections; but the State 
of Indiana is nearly out of debt, and may be disposed to execute 
a project which would redound so much to her prosperity. By this 
means a water communication far cheaper than any land convey¬ 
ance might be maintained throughout the entire length of the 
State, a distance of more than two hundred and fifty miles in an 
air line; thus uniting the commerce of the Ohio and Mississippi 
Rivers with that of the Great Lakes. 

Terre-Haute, December 20, 1871. 


No. Y. 

Growth of the Block Coal Region. 

Six years ago, Brazil, Indiana, was an obscure station on the 
Indianapolis and Terre-Haute Railroad. A single shaft, ninety 
feet in depth, worked by a horse whim, supplied the neighbor¬ 
hood demand for coal. The behavior of this coal in combustion 
excited no particular remark. A small quantity found its way to 
the Indianapolis Bolling Mill, where it was observed by some ex¬ 
plorers from the Mahoning Yalley, Ohio, who recognized its simi¬ 
larity in external characters to the most highly prized coals of 
Northern Ohio, and inquired as to the source from which it was 
obtained. Being informed, they at once entered upon its cxplora- 



RAILROAD DEVELOPMENT. 


25 


tion. Lands were leased or purchased;capital flowed in;an active 
industry sprang up. The result now is that there are six blast 
furnaces in operation,* using raw coal alone, which are capable of 
turning out fifty thousand tons of pig metal annually; and more 
than twenty collieries, raising 3,565 tons of coal daily, giving 
employment to nearly a thousand men and freighting fifteen rail¬ 
road trains, j* The demand for this peculiar coal is insatiable, and 
far outstrips the mining development or the railroad facilities for 
its transportation. I cite this as a notable example to show how 
far peculiar local resources are capable of originating and main¬ 
taining great lines of traffic. 

The Cincinnati and Terre-IIaute Kailway, now constructing, 
will cross the block coal zone where it attains its widest expan¬ 
sion, and where the seam exhibits its greatest thickness. This 
territory embraces the southern part of Clay County and the west¬ 
ern part of Owen. The seam is from four to four and one-lialf 
feet in thickness, and at one point it is five and one-half feet. 
Chemically, it is as rich in fixed carbon, and affords as white and 
flocculent an ash, as the best Brazil coal. I append two assays by 
Prof. Delafontaine : 

Oberhaltzer’s Mine. WagstafFs Mine. 

Water at 212° F. 0.80 2.17 

Volatile matter. 34.20 39. G3 

Fixed carbon. 61.35 56.79 

Ash, white and flocculent. 3.65 1.41 

100 . 00 - 100.00 

In the Oberlialtzer Mine there is a sulphur band in the middle, 
which is easily separable. Five feet thickness of coal was visible 
when I saw the seam, and an additional foot, it was said, was con¬ 
cealed by water. The territory underlaid by the block coal im¬ 
mediately adjacent to the line of the railroad, or which can be 
reached by short branches, comprises a little more than three 
'townships. Admitting that one-tliird of the area originally occu¬ 
pied by this seam has been swept away by drift agency, there 
remain nearly fifty thousand acres of four-feet coal, capable of 


* Appendix, Table C. 
f Appendix, Table D. 












26 


MINERAL WEALTH AND 


yielding about six thousand tons to the acre, or an average of 
three hundred million tons. 

Although the explorations in the northern part of the coal¬ 
field would indicate that the block coal seam wedges out rapidly 
when traced towards the interior of the basin, yet that is a question 
which cannot be considered as solved. Judging from the explo¬ 
rations in other countries, and particularly in England, we have a 
right to expect that this seam will continue in nearly undiminished 
thickness as it is found to pass under the overlapping edges of the 
superior strata. If so, as the dip is very moderate—less than 
twenty feet a mile, to the southwest—the area over which this 
seam can be mined at moderate depths will be found to be greatly 
enlarged. A more careful investigation of the materials brought 
up in the recent borings at Terre-IIaute would indicate that the 
block coal seam, in increased thickness, passes beneath that city— 
an indication totally at variance with the observations of those 
who sank the first wells. A problem upon which hinges such 
important economical considerations should ere long be solved 
beyond a doubt. 

The Brazil seam (the seam I of Professor Cox’s classification) 
does not represent all the iron-smelting coals of this region. 
There is evidence of other seams which come in as lenticular 
masses. At Brazil, which is about twelve miles north of the 
line of the Cincinnati and Terre-IIaute Bailway, since the organi¬ 
zation of the State Geological Survey, there has been discovered 
another seam, twelve feet below I, four feet thick, having all the 
properties of a first class smelting coal, winch is successfully used 
in a crude state in the blast furnace. At Centre Point, about five 
miles north of the line of the projected railway, twenty-eight feet 
below the seam I, there is another seam, four and one-half feet 
thick, which on exploration will probably be found to yield a 
first-class coal. These two seams are the equivalents of G and F 
of Professor Cox’s classification. 

Still beneath is another workable seam of coal, included in the 
Conglomerate or heavy-bedded sandstone, and designated as 
Seam A. At Arney’s Mine it is three feet thick; the coal is clean 
to handle, splintery in its fracture, and glossy and jet-like in 
appearance. Chemically, it is rich in fixed carbon, and contains 


RAILROAD DEVELOPMENT. 


27 


a small amount of ash of a white 
should be tested as a smeltinsc coal. 

and flocculent character. 
The following is the assay 

Water at 212° F.... 


Volatile matter. 


Fixed carbon. 


Ash. 


100.00 


Above the Brazil seam there are two others which will prove of 
great economical value. (1) The seam K—in limestone—is ex¬ 
posed at Middlebury, Linton and other points, where it appears 
from four and one-half to five feet in thickness. This is one of 
the most persistent seams in the Indiana coal-field, and yields a 
coal semi-block in character, and whose evaporative power prob¬ 
ably will be found to be as great as that of the Brazil seam. It is 
well adapted for steam-making and domestic purposes. (2) The 
seam L is the thickest in the series, and probably the most per¬ 
sistent. It seldom is less than five feet in thickness, and occa¬ 
sionally extends to nine. It underlies nearly the whole of Sulli¬ 
van County, and is extensively mined at Curryville, Shelburn 
and other points, and the products are sent to the Chicago market. 
In many of the exposures there are clay partings of half an inch 
or more, which would indicate that it is a compound seam, and 
each bend on assay will be found to present distinctive chemical 
characters. Much of this coal is free-caking and rich in volatile 
materials. Wilson’s coal, belonging to this seam, and near the 
line of the Cincinnati and Terre-Iiaute Bailway, assayed as fol¬ 
lows (Cox): 


Gas. 45.25 

Water. 2.35 

Fixed carbon. 51.60 

Ash, white. 0.80 


100.00 

Prof. Cox remarks: “ This is one of the best caking coals that 
has come under my notice in the State. It is of a glossy, 
jet-black color, vitreous fracture, and will soil the hands little 
more than cannel coal. The ash is white, and does not amount to 












28 


MINERAL WEALTH AND 


one per cent. The coke is of a fair quality, and the gas is 6.1 per 
cent, greater than I found in a sample of the Lest gas coal from 
Pittsburg.” 

A rich gas coal which shall yield a good firm coke free from 
sulphur is a great desideratum. In the Scotch district, where 
the splint coals are used to reduce the iron ores, it is found that 
the addition of a certain percentage of coke enables the furnace to 
carry a heavier blast, and consequently increases the yield in pig 
metal. The same experiments have been successfully tried in the 
Mahoning Yalley, at Chicago and at St. Louis. The West Coast 
furnaces (England), run with Durham coke, turn out from forty 
to eighty tons daily, while those of Brazil do not exceed twenty- 
five tons. To transport coke from Sullivan County to the block 
coal region would not require a distance of over twenty miles to 
be traversed. 

The Cincinnati and Terre-Haute Bailway. then, in a distance of 
thirty miles, will intersect not less than five seams of workable 
coals, which have an aggregate thickness of not far from twenty-five 
feet. These coals will be found to vary all the way from fatty, 
caking coals, rich in gas and capable of yielding a firm coke, to 
dry non-adhesive coals, having all the qualities of charcoal. The 
construction of such a line must develop a great mining and 
manufacturing industry, in the opening of numerous collieries for 
the supply of home and distant markets, and the erection of fur¬ 
naces, Bessemer works, rolling mills, foundries and machine shops. 
White and Eel Bivers will afford an unfailing supply of water for 
furnace and other manufacturing purposes—a requisite in which 
Brazil is deficient. Hear their junction it may be expected then 
that another Brazil will arise, but bearing another name—the 
name of Bessemer. 

Indianapolis, January 13, 1872. 


No. VI. 

The Future Seat of Iron Manufacture, 

There is no region of the earth where the ores of iron are 
so bountifully distributed, and in such a state of purity, as on the 



RAILROAD DEVELOPMENT. 


2$ 


water-shed between Lake Michigan and Lake Superior, and in the 
Iron Mountain region of Missouri. Practically the deposits are 
inexhaustible, and so far as relates to the purity of the ores, the 
chemist’s art has thus far failed to detect a notable percentage of 
sulphur, phosphorus, titanium, or other noxious ingredient. The 
bulk ol the ores occur under two forms: the specular or peroxide? 
containing 69.34 per cent, of iron, and the magnetic or protoxide, 
yielding 72.41 per cent. Even the specular ores contain dissemi¬ 
nated crystals of magnetic oxide, thus giving a larger percentage 
of iron than is required by the formula for this mineral. In the 
practical working in the furnace they yield about 65 per cent of 
iron, thus showing that they contain only 4 or 5 per cent, of silica. 
This silica, even where in excess, is no detriment to the pig iron 
when employed in the Bessemer process, but is in fact an ad¬ 
vantage. 

Comparing these ores with those of the most important mines of 
Sweden e. g ., Dannemora, Persberg, Kara, etc., we find there that 
sulphur is, so far present that it must be expelled by careful cal¬ 
cination—a process to which our specular ores are never subjected 
—and the matrix is generally highly silicious from the presence, 
of free silica, so that the average yield of the ores is 50 per cent. 
The magnetite from which the famous India “ wootz ” steel is 
made, is said to contain 40 per cent of silica. It is from the mag¬ 
netic and specular ores alone that the malleable iron is made in 
Sweden for exportation. Charcoal from wood of an indifferent 
quality, such as pine, larch and birch, gathered over wide spaces 
in midwinter, when the lakes and streams are frozen, is the only 
fuel employed in the reduction of the ores ; and hence Swedisli 
pig, apart from its intrinsic excellence, must always command 
a high price in the markets of the world. Pussian pig iron can 
undergo no diminution of price, for the supply is limited, since a 
ukase of the Czar prohibits the felling of wood beyond an extent 
equal to the annual growth. 

These details show that the Lake Superior and Missouri ores 
are to be preferred to those of Sweden in their freedom from sul¬ 
phur, requiring no calcination, and in their greater freedom from 
silicious matter—there being a difference in their favor of not less 
than 15 per cent. In addition to these ores there are in both dis- 


so 


MINERAL WEALTH AND 


tricts large deposits of brown haematites (hydrated sesquioxides), 
yielding 59.89 per cent of iron, which are just the ores required 
for admixture with the specular and magnetic ores, and which are 
equally free from noxious ingredients; they are, in fact, the result 
of the decomposition of the former ores, talcing into their compo¬ 
sition 14.44 per cent, of water. Manganesiferous ores, also, occur 
in the Lake Superior district, and will be found, I have reason to 
believe, abundantly in Missouri and Arkansas. This class of ores 
is absolutely essential to the production of that pig iron known as 
spiegeleisen, or specular iron—apig metal which breaks into large, 
bright, mirror like facets, due to the presence of about 4 per cent, 
of manganese, and on which the Bessemer process of steel-making 
depends for its success. 

After the opening of the Lake Superior Mines the iron-masters 
of Northern Ohio and Western Pennsylvania soon found that it 
was more economical to use a pure and rich ore from a distance 
than a lean and impure ore from the immediate vicinity of their 
furnaces; and the consequence is that the iron-ore traffic of Lake 
Superior within the last ten years has grown to prodigious pro¬ 
portions—the product in 1861 being only about 54,500 gross tons, 
while in the season just closed it reached nearly 1,000,000 tons. 
The growth in the traffic of the Iron Mountain ores of Missouri has 
been also very marked. The war of the Rebellion operated as a 
eheck on their mining ; but since the peace the traffic has been 
rapidly extending, and next year, I am assured by Mr. Chouteau, 
the product will reach 850,000 tons. Thus, then, the ores derived 
from these two sources about equal in furnace yield the entire 
product in pig metal of the United States for the year 1861—a 
noteworthy fact in the development of the iron industry of this 
country. 

The furnaces in the Mahoning Yalley of Ohio, in the Shenango 
Yalley of Pennsylvania, and at Pittsburg, Buffalo, Cleveland, Mas¬ 
sillon, Dover, Toledo, Detroit and Brazil, are the principal con¬ 
sumers of the Lake Superior ores. At Buffalo the anthracite 
coals from Pittston are used for their reduction: at Pittsburg 
the iron-masters employ not only the coal in their vicinity, but 
that on the Connelsville road, sixty miles distant, both of which 
must be reduced to coke before being used; in the Mahoning and 


RAILROAD DEVELOPMENT. 


31 


Shenango Valleys and at Massillon they obtain a coal which is 
employed in a crude state for iron-smelting; at Cleveland they 
use coke obtained from the region of Pittsburg; at Toledo and 
Detroit they largely use charcoal; and at Brazil they use coal in 
a crude state. In the Lake Superior region there are ten hot- 
blast furnaces where charcoal is exclusively employed. Coke un¬ 
doubtedly is among the best of reducing agents, but in the 
process of coking the volatile materials are not economized. Ac¬ 
cording to experience in England the coals lose one-fourth in 
weight, while they gain one-fourth in bulk. The cost of the pro¬ 
cess is probably from a cent and one-half to two cents a bushel. 
To maintain perpetually a charcoal furnace requires at least 10,000 
acres of land. Charcoal furnaces, then, can never exist in close 
proximity, as they soon disrobe a country of its forests. Block 
coal is the cheapest and most available fuel in iron metallurgy. 
Now, if we consult a map on which are indicated the ore deposits 
and the deposits of fossil fuel, as well as the several routes cl 
transportation, both natural and artificial, we shall find that bring 
ing the iron ores and the coaltogether, for the manufacture of iron, 
can be effected more cheaply within the outline of the block coal 
region of Indiana than at any other point. 

And, first, as to the distribution of the Lake Superior ores. I 
will take, for example, Pittsburg and Terre-Haute as connecting 
points. Adopting Escanaba, on the northern shore of Lake 
Michigan, as the common point of departure for these ores, there 
is a lake voyage of five hundred and eighty-five miles to Cleveland, 
which involves two towages, one through the St. Clair River and 
Flats, and one through the Detroit River into Lake Erie; the 
transportation costing ordinarily $3 per ton. To convey these 
ores to Pittsburg involves a railroad transportation of one hundred 
and fifty miles, at a cost of $2, together with a transfer and dock¬ 
age charge of 25 cents, making the entire cost $5.25. From 
Escanaba to Chicago is two hundred and seventy-five miles, and a 
vessel may lay a straight course between the two points. Mr. W. 
B. Ogden, one of the most practical and sagacious business men of 
the Northwest, who conveys his lumber from Peshtigo to Chicago 
in barges built ship-shape and calculated to resist heavy seas, main¬ 
tains that in this way the iron ores can be transported from Escanaba 


82 


MINERAL WEALTH AND 


to Chicago for $1 per ton. Estimating the railroad transportation at 
a cent and one-third per ton per mile, and the cost of transfer 
the same as at Cleveland, these ores ought to be delivered at 
Terre-Haute, one hundred and eighty miles from Chicago, at 
$3.65 a ton, or a difference on the whole route, as compared with 
Pittsburg, of $1.60 a ton. How, in a furnace turning out twenty- 
five tons of pig metal a day, requiring 33.75 tons of ore, this dif¬ 
ference in the cost would amount to nearly $20,000 per annum—a 
very pretty dividend. If it be said that Terre-Haute is sixteen 
miles from the coal, on the other hand it may be said that Pitts¬ 
burg is sixty miles from the coke. 

I now come to the distribution of the Iron Mountain ores, again 
taking Pittsburg and Terre-Haute as the connecting points, and 
St. Louis as the point of departure. To Terre-Haute, by rail, the 
distance is one hundred and sixty-five miles; to Pittsburg, six 
hundred and thirty-five miles. Estimating the transportation at a 
cent and one-third per ton per mile, the cost of delivering a ton 
of ore at Terre-Haute would be $2.20, which the iron-master can 
afford to pay; and to Pittsburg $8.46, which the iron-master can¬ 
not afford to pay. 

Under certain favorable circumstances, where Pittsburg oper¬ 
ators send their barges laden with coal to St. Louis and bring 
back ore, the transportation has been effected at $3 per ton. It 
involves a voyage of not less than 1,200 miles, and can be per¬ 
formed only during the Spring and Pali freshets of the Ohio Kiver. 
The same ores can be brought into union with the block coals of 
Southern Indiana by a water communication seven hundred miles 
less in extent. It should be borne in mind, too, that there is a 
market on the wmstern slope of the Mississippi Yalley for all the 
iron and steel which can be produced in the coal-field of Indiana 
for many years, and Tcrrc-IIautc is nearly five hundred miles 
nearer that market than Pittsburg. With the best crude mate¬ 
rials at command, the iron-master of Indiana, exercising a reason- 
able_skill, ought to be able to defy competition. 

Indianapolis, Jan. 20, 1872. 



RAILROAD DEVELOPMENT. 


33 


No. VII. 

British Ores Failing. 

Every geological observer who investigates the distribution of 
the coals and iron ores of our country, and the facilities which ex¬ 
ist for bringing them together, must, I think, arrive at the conclu¬ 
sion that, before the lapse of another generation, the United States 
will be the great iron and steel-producing country of the world. 

Great Britain is now at the head of the iron interest of the 
world, having some six hundred furnaces, which annually consume 
upward of 11,500,000 tons of ore, and bring out a product in pig 
metal of 5,500,000 tons, valued at over £13,500,000 sterling. 
This production is only about two and three-fourth times that of 
the United States; and in going back a single decade, we find 
that in Great Britain the rate of increase has been only about 44 
per cent., while in the United States the rate has been at least 120 
percent There are causes in operation which will prevent any 
rapid expansion of the iron industry in the one country, while in 
the other the great sources of that industry are comparatively un¬ 
touched. Among these causes may be mentioned the limited sup¬ 
ply of good ores in Great Britain, and the necessity which arises 
each year of sinking deeper for the fuel to smelt them, and, con¬ 
sequently, the increased expense of raising it to-day. Great 
Britain has a redundancy of capital content with moderate earn¬ 
ings, which the United States has hot; but each year tends to 
equalize the disparity. She has not an unlimited supply of cheap 
labor to draw upon, and any sudden expansion of her iron indus¬ 
try would raise the price of wages. In fact, the cheap labor of 
France and Belgium even now compels England to rely on her 
superior skill for her manufacturing ascendancy. The great body 
of the British ore is derived from the Coal Measures and the Lias. 
There are four great iron centers in the Kingdom, viz. : The 
South Wales, the Scotch, the Cleveland and the West Coast dis¬ 
tricts. In the South Wales and Scotch districts the impure car¬ 
bonates of the Coal Measures are very largely used, and the yield 
in metallic iron ranges from 21 to 34 per cent. Owing to the great 
demand for pure pig, suitable for the Bessemer process, foreign 


34 


MINERAL WEALTH AND 


ores are brought into the South Wales district from Belfast and 
Spain, which are intermixed with a brown hasmatite from Llan- 
trissant, and reduced with raw coal. In the Scotch district occurs 
the famous black-band ore of Mushet, which gives a furnace yield 
of about 40 per cent. Splint coal in a raw state is the reducing 
agent. The pig metal, a dark gray iron, though not adapted to the 
Bessemer process, has a high reputation in the markets of the world. 

The industry of the Cleveland district has within a short time 
shown an unexampled growth, and now furnishes nearly one-tliird 
of the pig iron produced in the United Kingdom. The ores arc 
derived from the Lias, which crops out in bold cliffs on the York 
shire coast. They are lean, giving only from 30 to 35 per cent, 
in the furnace, and they abound in the worst of impurities, the pig- 
iron itself retaining not less than 1.33 per cent, of phosphorus. 
The product of the furnaces is worked into railroad bars and ship- 
plates. The Durham coke, an excellent article, is near at hand, 
which makes the reduction of these inferior ores profitable. Now, if 
we turn to Percy’s great work on the “Metallurgy of (British) 
Iron,” where the assays of one hundred specimens of these ores 
are given, we shall find that in every instance he detected the 
presence of phosphorus, and while the average amount reached .03 
per cent., in some instances it went up to 1.12. No metallurgy 
skill has thus far been able to eliminate this deleterious ingredient 
from the ores, or prevent it from passing into pig iron; nor is it 
wholly extirpated from the manufactured bar. In the Bessemer 
process it adheres to the iron, in every stage and in undiminished 
quantity. With one per cent, of phosphorus, iron becomes fit for 
but few purposes. Sulphur is also present in these ores, which is 
to some extent expelled by calcination and the subsequent pro¬ 
cess of puddling, but sufficient remains to render the iron unfit for 
conversion into the higher qualities of steel. These noxious in¬ 
gredients appertain to the Coal Measure ores the world over, as 
though the organic matter which formed the coal, charged with 
these substances, communicated them to the iron ores. 

In the districts of Dartmoor and Devonshire there are limited 
deposits of magnetites, but they contain about two per cent, of 
phosphorus, which renders them nearly worthless, except for bombs 
and coarse castings. 


RAILROAD DEVELOPMENT. 


35 


( Owing to the success of the Bessemer process, the West Coast 
district lias rapidly risen in importance within the last ten years. 
The ores which here occur are the best in the Kingdom, but the 
fuel to smelt them is not readily accessible. They are the only 
British ores adapted to bringing out good Bessemer pig ; and since 
this fact has been demonstrated, the number of furnaces in the 
district has increased from nine to thirty-six. The geological posi¬ 
tion of these ores is in the sub-carboniferous limestone, and they 
occur in the form of pockets, occupying the fissures and cavities, 
and, therefore, are not persistent in range. At Cleator Moor, 
Cumberland, a compact, pulverulent, unctuous ore is obtained, 
yielding 66 per cent., and free from noxious ingredients; at Lin* 
dale Moor and Ulverstone, Lancashire, a hard, compact, red haem¬ 
atite is obtained, yielding 65 per cent, of metallic iron, and of an 
excellent quality. These ores contain a notable percentage of 
silica, which is essential to Bessemer pig ; and yet to get rid of 
the excess, and to make a more fusible slag, an aluminous ore 
from Belfast, Ireland, is used for admixture. So great is the de¬ 
mand for these haematite ores, that within two years the price has 
been advanced 50 and even 70 per cent., and the product of the 
mines is contracted for up to 1873. The supply is inadequate, 
and British iron masters have organized two stock companies of 
large capital to import a high grade of ores from the distant region 
of Spain. In Great Britain these peculiar ores occupy a circum¬ 
scribed area, and, it is feared, may give out altogether. At the 
Edinburgh meeting of the British Association for the Advancement 
of Science, two years ago, it was proposed to raise a committee to 
memorialize the Director of the Geological Survey, that he cause 
investigation to be made to determine whether this class of ores 
might not be found to occupy a larger area ; and more recently 
the Iron and Steel Institute have preferred a similar request, but 
thus far no favorable response has been given. The fuel employed 
in the reduction of these ores is Durham coke, which is brought 
one hundred and twenty miles by rail. 

Another significant fact, showing the deficiency of England in 
ores suitable for the higher qualities of steel, is this: that, not¬ 
withstanding she is the largest exporter of iron in different forms, 
she is at the same time a very considerable importer of Swedish 


36 


MINERAL WEALTH AND 


and Russian pig metal, made from specular and magnetic ores y 
similar in composition to those of Lake Superior and Missouri, that 
are used by the iron-masters of Indiana for ordinary purposes. 
A Sheffield steel manufacturer will pay £30 a ton for this iron, 
when ordinary British pig can be had at one-fifth or one-sixth of 
the price. These importations often reach as high as 50,000 tons 
of pig metal a year, while the importation of foreign ores is not less 
than 2,000,000 tons. 

Here are considerations which ought to arrest the attention of 
American statesmen and political economists in reference to the 
future growth and grandeur of our country. I have endeavored 
to show, in my former letters to The Tribune, that in Indiana there 
is a vast body of fossil fuel, which has all the merits of charcoal as 
a reducing agent; that in Missouri and on the borders of Lake 
Superior are large deposits of iron ore, free from noxious ingre¬ 
dients, and eminently adapted to the production of the highest 
grades of iron and Bessemer steel, and that the natural and artifi¬ 
cial communications are such that the union between the coal and 
iron can be effected as cheaply as in any region of the earth. 

Indianapolis, Jan. 22, 1872. 


No. VIII. 

iron Industry of the Northwest. 

The States northwest of the Ohio River, and embraced in the 
provisions of the Ordinance of 1787, show a development in popu¬ 
lation unprecedented in the annals of the human race. The bulk 
of population, and consequently the scepter of political power, 
within the memory of living men, have passed from the Atlantic 
coast to beyond the Alleghanies. The political divisions carved 
out of this area had already acquired the appellation of the “ Food- 
Producing States,” but now they are rapidly assuming the position 
of mining and manufacturing commonwealths. While in a purely 
agricultural community there are no extremes in the distribution 
of wealth, neither great opulence nor abject poverty, still, such a 
community, deprived of home markets and subjected to heavy 



RAILROAD DEVELOPMENT. 


37 


exactions upon every article sent abroad or received at home, is 
not in a condition to embark in those schemes of improvement 
which are characteristic of our modern civilization. For the full 
development of a State there must be a diversified industry. 
Those who manufacture the crude materials add quite as much to 
the national wealth as those who produce such materials, whether 
derived from the soil, the forest or the sea. Where there exists 
the happy combination of a fertile soil and a genial climate, agri¬ 
culture is at first the leading pursuit; but as population increases, 
as men gather in communities and routes of intercommunication 
arc opened, there follow manufactures and the mechanic arts. The 
Northwestern States have already entered upon this second stage 
of development. Selecting iron, its mining and manufacture, as 
an example of diversified industry, the progress of development 
within the past ten years exhibits the most gratifying results. 
Referring to the statistics of Mr. Henry McAllister, Jr., Secretary 
of the American Iron and Steel Association, recently published, 
that industry may be traced from small beginnings up to the pres¬ 
ent time, when it has assumed commanding proportions. 


Illinois. 

The first rails were rolled in 1858. 

Hails rolled in 1871. 

Rails re-rolled in 1871. 


Tons. 
40,026 
51,15 j 


Total. 91,178 


Of the former, 2,800 tons were steel. 

The first pig iron was made in 1854. In 1871 the product of seven furnaces 
was 05,000 tons. As a producer of railroad iron Illinois is now second only to 
Pennsylvania. In Chicago and vicinity before the lapse of another year, 
there will be in operation altogether, three Bessemer works, each with a double 
plant, six furnaces and four rolling mills, as well as numerous foundries and 
machine shops. * 

INDIANA. 

A small quantity of charcoal iron, the product of three or four cheaply- 
constructed furnaces, no longer used, was made prior to 1860. Recently there 
have sprung up at Brazil and vicinity six furnaces using raw coal and capable 
of turning out 50,000 tons of pig metal annually. There is a rolling mill at 
Tcrrc-IIaute, at Greencastle, and at Indianapolis, and the amount of rails 
rolled in 1871 was 12,778 tons. 







oS 


MINERAL WEALTH AND 


MICHIGAN. 

In 1854 the first pig iron was made, amounting only to 

In 1871 the product amounted to.... *.:. 

Rails rolled. 

In 185G the amount of ore raised was only. 


In 1871 the ore exported reached. 810,984 

In 1871 the ore consumed reached. 100,000 


Tons. 

900 

100,000 

14,000 

2,810 


Total 


910,984 


The value of the ores thus far raised in the magnetic region, delivered on 
the dock, is $35,185,778. The ores from this source, estimated at the furnace 
yield of 60 per cent., are now furnishing about one-third of all the pig iron 
produced in the United States. To show the prodigious growth of this in¬ 
dustry, it may be stated that in 1861 the product of this region only reached 
50,882 tons. 


WISCONSIN. 

In 1856 the first pig iron was produced. 

In 1871 the product was. 

Rails rolled. 


Tons. 

2,500 

28,249 

28,774 


Several furnaces are projected, and the probabilities now are that an iron 
district will be developed on the Menominee and on the borders of Lake 
Superior, which, in the quantity and purity of its ores, will rival that of 
Marquette. 


MISSOURI. 


Although this State is not embraced in those comprehended in the Ordinance 
of 1787, yet she is closely linked by a community of interests with the North¬ 
west. She is making rapid strides not only in mining the ores but in the 
product of pig metal and the manufactured bar. 


Tons. 

In 1854 she produced in pigs . 5,789 

In 1871 she produced in pigs. 82,685 


of which 39,634 tons were smelted with charcoal and 42,751 tons with mineral 
coal. 

In 1871 the rails rolled amounted to 8,200 tons. The capacity of the rolling 
mill at St. Louis, which w^ent into operation late in the year, is 50,000 tons 
per annum. The shipments of iron ore from Iron Mountain and vicinity in 
862 did not exceed 2,000 tons; in 1871 they amounted to 268,800 tons. Mr. 
Chouteau informs me that this year the shipments from the Iron Mountain 
(specular ore) will reach 350,000 tons, vdiile those from Cuba, w T est of St 
Louis (brown haematite), will exceed 25,000 ions. 


Now, these States are producing about 20 per cent, of all the 
rails rolled and 40 per cent, of all the pig metal annually pro- 



















RAILROAD DEVELOPMENT. 


89 


duced in the United States. Some of them now, and all of them 
hereafter, must draw, wholly or in part, their supply of fossil fuel 
from the coal-field of Indiana. Thus, as this industry extends 
itself, there will be created a need for the block coals, com¬ 
pared with which the present demand is insignificant. 

Chicago, Feb. 14, 1872. 


No. IX. 

The Markets of Block Coal.* 

The production of coal in the United States during 1871, as 
estimated by Mr. Sherman in a late speech in the Senate, was 
84,000,000 tons, divided as follows: anthracite, 19,000,000; bitu¬ 
minous, 15,000,000. 

The anthracites reach the Ohio Valley only in limited quantities, 
so that the main consumption for domestic and manufacturing 
purposes is of the bituminous varieties. The great mining center 
for the latter class of coals is Pittsburg. There were received 
there during the past year, 96,739,135 bushels of coal, or more 
than 3,700,000 net tons; and there were shipped down the Ohio 
River 47,298,000 bushels, or over 1,400,000 tons. But this 
amount does not represent all the shipments by river. Wheeling, 
Pomeroy, the Kanawha regions and other localities, swell the 
shipments, so that the amount which passes the Cincinnati and 
Newport Bridge, each year, for the supply of Cincinnati and 
the lower markets, is estimated at 75,000,000 bushels or over 
2,800,000 net tons. Cincinnati last year, according to Mr. Hubbel, 
absorbed 30,000,000 bushels, over 1,000,000 tons, two-thirds of 
which were consumed in the city, and one-third was sent to the 
neighboring villages. The price of this coal in barges is 15 cents 
a bushel, or $3.95 a net ton. As the great bulk of the inhabitants 
cannot afford to buy their year’s supply of fuel in the spring, but 
purchase as the necessity arises, this sum by no means repre¬ 
sents the actual cost to the consumer. During the past winter, 
twice that price was demanded and paid. The precarious nature 


* Appendix, Table II. 




40 


MINERAL WEALTH AND 


of the river navigation must render the Cincinnati co^l market 
subject to the most violent fluctuations. The middle men who 
carry stocks during the summer must gauge their prices in pro¬ 
portion to the uncertainty of their business. If the expected Win¬ 
ter freshet is delayed a few weeks, they become heavy losers. 
Now a railroad connecting Cincinnati directly with the Block 
Coal Field of Indiana, and constructed with express reference to 
a coal traffic, would enable that city to receive her supply of fuel 
at all seasons of the year, cheaper than she can otherwise in the 
most favorable stages of river navigation. Cincinnati and vicinity 
are nominally paying four and onc-third million dollars for their 
yearly supply of fuel, but the difference between this sum and 
what is actually paid by the consumers in two years, would build 
a railroad to the Block Coal Field. 

Turning now to the great Lake market—Chicago—it may be 
stated that the receipts of coal for 1871, were 1,081,472 gross tons, 
one-third of which was anthracite. In this market ‘ famine prices” 
always prevail, which have seriously retarded manufacturing de¬ 
velopment. In the summer the price of anthracite is $9 a ton 
net, and in the latter stages of winter it rises to $13. The block 
coals of Northern Ohio generally open at $8 and close at $10, and 
at Brazil the prices fluctuate from $7 to $8. In analyzing the 
sources of supply, leaving out half a million of tons received by 
lake, it will be found that about 330,000 tons are drawn from the 
Illinois coal-field, less than 50,000 tons from the Brazil district, 
and nearly 190,000 tons from the Nocking Valley and the region 
of Pittsburg. 

Now, with the opening of new collieries in the block coal dis¬ 
trict, and new lines of transportation to the Lake markets, w T hick 
shall rely on the magnitude of their business, rather than exorbi¬ 
tant charges for their profits, the block coals of Indiana can be 
furnished to the Chicago consumer at $4.50 a ton; a consumma¬ 
tion devoutly to be wished. At that price the Chicago market 
would yearly absorb half a million tons, and a quarter of a million 
tons would find their way to the neighboring villages. If Cin¬ 
cinnati can afford to build one railroad to the block coal region, 
Chicago can afford two. 




liAILROAD DEVELOPMENT. 


41 


In tlie markets of the Lower Mississippi, the block coals could 
obtain almost a monopoly, shipped as they can be from a point 
seven hundred miles below Pittsburg, and where the navigation is 
rarely impeded by low water or running ice. 

I have previously shown how far the iron industry of the North¬ 
west is tributary to block coal. The furnaces, rail-mills, Bessemer 
works and foundries, which within a very few years will go into 
operation, added to those already at work, together with the rap¬ 
idly increasing demand for steam and household purposes, will 
cause the annual consumption of this peculiar coal ere long to 
reach many millions of tons. The construction of the Cincinnati 
and Terre-IIaute Railway will duplicate the existing facilities for 
obtaining it. 

O 

Chicago, April 18, 1872. 


No. X 

V,’ % 

American Bessemer Steel Rails. 

Some fifteen years ago, Mr. Bessemer, an English gentleman of 
German descent, conceived the idea of converting pig iron into 
steel without the intermediate processes of puddling or cementa¬ 
tion. Eminent metallurgists, among whom may be named 
Percy and Noad, regarded his process, even after it had been re¬ 
duced to practice, with extreme distrust; but now, every one must 
look upon it as a magnificent triumph—a triumph which goes 
very far to answer the world’s demand for cheap steel. 

The principle which the Bessemer process is founded upon, con¬ 
sists in forcing jets of air into a mass of molten metal, by which it 
is decarbonized without the further application of heat, while at 
the same time there is introduced another mass of molten metal 
sufficiently charged with carbon to convert the combined product 
into steel. The modus operandi is this: Pig iron is melted in an 
ordinary air-furnace, from which it is drawn into a ‘‘converter”— 
an ellipsoid vessel, capable of holding, say, five tons, constructed 
of wrought iron and mounted on trunnions. The mterior is lined 
with lire brick, or with ground quartz cemented with fire-clay, and 



42 


MINERAL WEALTH AND 


the bottom is pierced with innumerable boles in the nature of 
tweers. When the blast of cold air is applied, instead of chilling 
the mass, as might be supposed before experiment, there is pro¬ 
duced a glowing white heat, far more intense than that of a blast 
furnace; a violent ebullition ensues, and jets of molten metal are 
projected high in air, accompanied by a fierce flame, first violet, 
then orange, and last white, 'which indicates to the operator that 
the process of decarbonization has been carried sufficiently far. 
Colored glasses and even the spectroscope have been used in de¬ 
termining the precise point when to shut off the blast; but the 
skilled operator, looking not at the flame, but the reflected light 
on the wall, determines the matter without adventitious aids. The 
blowing process occupies from ten to twenty minutes. Then, tap¬ 
ping a small cupola furnace, there is allowed to flow thence from 
five to ten per cent of spiegeleisen, previously reduced, which al¬ 
most immediately incorporates itself with the mass, which is then 
drawn off and cast into ingot molds. 

This is the simple process for making Bessemer steel. A word 
as to spiegeleisen—glittering iron—upon which this process de¬ 
pends for its success. It is a pig metal, smelted from a manganesif 
erous iron ore, which occurs near Stahlburg, Germany, and has 
the peculiar property of breaking into large, bright, mirror-like fa¬ 
cets. Its chemical composition, according to Schafhault, is as fol¬ 


lows : 

Iron. . 88.961 

Carbon. 5.440 

Manganese. 4.003 

Silicon. 0.179 

Nitrogen. 1.200 

Copper. 0.166 

Tin.. 0.116 

Total. 100.065 


A later assay made by Fresenius, of a spiegeleisen run from 
the spathic ores at Musen, gives 20.7 of manganese, while the 
amount of carbon is only 4.3. The principal merit of this pig 
metal is its property of retaining a notable percentage of carbon and 
manganese. The franklinite of New Jersey—a tri-compound of 
iron, manganese and zinc—has this property in a still higher de¬ 
gree, as indicated by the assay of Henry : 











RAILROAD DEVELOPMENT. 


43 


Carbon. 6.900 

Silicon. 0.100 

Manganese. 11.500 

Sulphur. 0.137 

Iron by difference. 81.363 

Total.100.000 


The red oxide of zine in the franklinite, is regarded as no det¬ 
riment, but rather as an advantage. Manganesiferous ores, prob¬ 
ably suitable for spiegeleisen, as I have shown, exist both on the 
borders of Lake Superior and in Missouri, so that we shall not be 
dependent on foreign sources for this all-important ingredient in 
the Bessemer process. 

Simple and wonderful as are these results, they represent chemi¬ 
cal changes which have long been known. Pig metal, apart from its 
impurities, is a highly carbureted iron, the maximum of carbon 
which Faraday could obtain being 5.64 per cent. Steel contains 
from 0.3 to 1.3 per cent of carbon. Bar iron is steel freed from 
nearly every trace of carbon. Now it is evident that in the con, 
version of cast-iron into malleable iron it must pass through the in¬ 
termediate state of steel; but the difficulty has been to determine 
the precise point of time at which to arrest the process. Bessemer 
(and herein consists the great merit of this process) adds the 
amount of carbon to the decarbonized iron requisite to form par¬ 
ticular grades of steel; and so completely is this under the 
control of the operator that, in the practical working, it does not 
vary one-tenth of one per cent. While thus the amount of car¬ 
bon necessary to produce the different grades of steel is suscep¬ 
tible of the nicest gradation, there are other elements which set at 
defiance the highest metallurgic skill ; e.y, phosphorus and sul¬ 
phur. In the ordinary process of puddling, these noxious ingre¬ 
dients are, to some extent, eliminated; but in the Bessemer pro¬ 
cess, while the amount of sulphur is slightly reduced, the phos¬ 
phorus passes into the steel in undiminished quantity, in fact in¬ 
creased in proportion to the loss sustained in the conversion. 
This is shown in the subjoined assay by Percy of pig iron and 
malleable iron, as determined by the Bessemer process: 

Pig Iron. Malleable Iron. 

0.485 0,402 

1.012 1.402 


Sulphur. .. . 
Phosphorus 











44 


MINERAL WEALTH AND 


The Bessemer process has communicated an extraordinary im¬ 
pulse to the steel industry of England. There are now not less 
than twenty establishments using this process, which produce 
nearly 1,000,000 tons of this peculiar steel. The great bulk of 
the British ores, derived from the Coal Measures and the Lias, and 
the Pennsylvania ores, derived from the Coal Measures, as shown 
in a former letter, as well as the recent deposits known as “bog 
•ores,” are utterly worthless for the production of Bessemer steel. 
The Adirondack ores—and herein I include their extension south¬ 
ward to New Jersey—are often contaminated with sulphur and 
phosphorus, and even titanium—-the latter element being equally 
deleterious—so that they cannot be employed where a high de¬ 
gree of tensile strength, as in iron, or keen cutting qualities as in 
steel, are required. Happily for us, however, in the specular and 
magnetic ores of Lake Superior and Missouri, and their resultant 
products from decomposition—the brown sesquioxides—we have 
an absolute perfection of iron ores, and in exhaustless quantities ; 
and in the block coals of Indiana we have a reducing agent 
which closely assimilates to charcoal, thus providing the two great 
materials for the perfect realization of this problem. 

As, then, the Bessemer process is destined to confer substantial 
benefits on mankind, and as our country affords unsurpassed facil¬ 
ities for its full development, I deem it opportune to state how far 
it has become domiciled among us, and what expense attends its 
introduction. The plant necessary to produce 100 tons of ingots 
in a period of twenty-four hours, costs $300,000, and to duplicate 
this plant under the same shelter costs $200,000. A rail-mill to 
consume this combined product costs $300,000. Thus to carry on 
the various processes from the crude metal to the merchantable 
rail, requires a capital of not less than $800,000. This sum may 
seem startling, but while capital is cautious, it is ever keen to seek 
the most profitable investments. Bessemer works have already 
been established at the following points : Troy, N.Y. ; Johnstown, 
Harrisburg, and Bethlehem, Penn. ; Cleveland, two establishments; 
Chicago, two; and Joliet, one now erecting. Each of these estab¬ 
lishments has a double plant, and is capable of supplying a rail 
mill. At Troy, the melt consists of two-thirds English pig and 
one-third American charcoal pig. At Harrisburg and Betide- 


RAILROAD DEVELOPMENT. 


45 


hem, anthracite iron, without the addition of charcoal iron, is em¬ 
ployed. At Cleveland, pig iron from Missouri Iron Mountain ore T 
smelted with Brazil coal; and at Chicago, Brazil pig and Grand 
Towei pig made from Missouri ores, reduced from a mixture ot 
Murfreesboro' coal two-thirds and coke one-third ; are successfully 
used. Mr. Holley prefers, however, in all cases, an admixture of 
one-third charcoal pig. The distinctive qualities of pig metal, 
whether made from specular or haematite ores, are disregarded, the 
mam feature being their freedom from sulphur and phosphorus. 
The cost of spiegeleisen from Germany is $58, gold ; that of the 
Hew Jersey franklinite, about the same. The latter is richer 
in manganese, and is equally esteemed. In the purchase of 
spiegeleisen, that containing ten per cent, of manganese is re¬ 
garded as the standard ; and the price is enhanced or diminished 
as the percentage rises or falls below that standard. 

There is a loss of 14 or 15 per cent, of pig metal in the conver¬ 
sion into steel. The scraps arc utilized by drawing them into 
merchant bars, ties, wire, etc. Where the cost of pig is $30 a ton, 
ingot steel is $61, and rails $81. For these practical details I am 
indebted to Mr. A. L. Holley, a gentleman of eminent experience, 
and under whose supervision several of the works enumerated have 
been erected. This branch of iron industry is yet in its infancy, 
especially in the States bordering the Ohio Yalley. The cardi¬ 
nal fact is now demonstrated in the daily product of blast fur¬ 
naces and converters, that the specular ores of Lake Superior and 
M issouri, by reason of their richness and purity, and the block 
coals of Indiana in their near approach to charcoal as a reducing 
agent, and the facilities which exist for bringing these together, 
are destined to answer the world’s imperative demand for cheap 
steel. It requires no prophetic vision to foresee that, before the 
lapse of half a century, the block coal region of Indiana will be 
the principal seat of Bessemer steel manufacture, not only of this, 
country, but of the world. 

Chicago, March 11, 1872. 



46 


MINERAL WEALTH AND 


No. XL 

Ohio River Navigation. 

The credit of the discovery of the Upper Ohio is probably due 
to La Salle. There is an interval in the life of that intrepid ex¬ 
plorer, between the years 1669 and 1671, in which his career is 
but obscurely traced ; but his admirers claim that, during this 
interval, he visited the region of Onondaga, New York, where, 
obtaining an Indian guide, he passed over to a branch of the 
Ohio, and, threading its course to the main affluent, he descended 
as far at least as the Falls below Louisville, when, his guide de¬ 
serting him, he was compelled to retrace his steps alone. On the 
earliest maps the Ohio is called the Ouaboukigou—corrupted into 
Ouabache (Wabash)—the meaning of which is unknown; but 
this name is now applied to one of its principal tributaries, which 
traverses, in a south-westerly direction, nearly the whole State of 
Indiana. The early French voyageurs called the Ohio “ La Belle 
Riviere ”—The Beautiful River. The name Ohio, according to 
Ileckewalder, the Moravian missionary, is derived from the Indian 
word Ohiopekhanne, signifying a very white stream, perhaps in 
reference to the white caps which diversify its usually placid sur¬ 
face when ruffled by a strong wind; but subsequent explorers 
found it convenient to drop the three ultimate syllables for ease of 
pronunciation. It is, indeed, a beautiful stream ; not that its 
waters are pure and crystal-like, but the hills which border the 
intervales have a rounded outline and are covered with a forest 
verdure so diversified as at once to arrest the attention of the 
tourist. The area of its basin is not less than 214,000 square 
miles ; and the first settlement of English extraction within this 
basin was made since the birth of men now living. 

There has been a development of material wealth in this region 
unsurpassed in the previous annals of the human race. The great 
cities of Pittsburg, Cincinnati and Louisville have been founded 
upon its banks, and a restless, energetic people have established 
homes upon its remotest tributaries. In the early days of colon¬ 
ization the Ohio was the great artery of communication with the 
outside world. During the winter, flat-boats—broad horns—were 


RAILROAD DEVELOPMENT 


47 


constructed on the banks of the j^rincipal tributaries, and as soon 
as the icy fetters were unloosed, were launched and loaded, and, 
availing themselves of the spring freshets, pursued their way to 
the distant market of New Orleans. This, indeed, was the only 
market. In the course of time came railroads, which have 
wrought an entire change in the commerce of the country, and 
rendered the navigation of the Ohio of secondary importance, at 
least so far as relates to the movement of passengers and of those 
articles which possess a concentrated value. Eighty years of 
settlement have also essentially changed the character of the river 
itself. As the sources of its feeders become disrobed of their 
forests, and the low grounds drained for the purposes of cultiva¬ 
tion, the spring freshets carry off at once the superabundant 
waters, and there succeed long intervals in which the navigation 
of the main river is practically suspended. Old residents upon 
its banks wonder why it no longer moves with a nearly equable 
flow. A mysterious power is apparently operating to change its 
regimen. This is due to physical causes easily comprehended. 
Trees with their leafy canopy not only condense the floating 
vapors, causing them to descend in fertilizing showers, but also 
retard the circulation of the atmosphere, and consequently prevent 
evaporation. Swamps are nothing more than great sponges 
placed at the heads of streams, capable of absorbing large bodies 
of water, slowly to be given off. Now, when you fell the trees 
and drain the swamps over a river basin, the river itself will no 
longer move with a nearly equable flood. And such is the case 
with the Ohio. 

The hydraulics of this stream are given by Humphreys and 
Abbot, in their great work upon “ The Physics of the Mississippi 
Valley ; ” and that I may not lay myself under the imputation of 
misrepresenting the precariousness of its navigation, I will con¬ 
dense their statements. The Ohio, formed by the junction of the 
Monongahela and Alleghany, is nine hundred and seventy-five 
miles in length. With the exception of the “ Falls ” at Louisville, 
where it descends twenty-six feet in three miles, it flows through¬ 
out its entire course with a gentle current. Its bars, particularly 
in its lower course, are composed of shifting sands; and this fact 
is memorable to every one who, like myself, has been repeatedly 


L_ 


48 


MINERAL WEALTH AND 


“stuck’’upon them at different points, all the way from Pitts¬ 
burg to Scuflletown Rapids. Its range between low and high 
water is about 45 feet. Its least low-water depth on the bars, 
from the mouth to Paducah, is about 8.0 feet; thence to Louis¬ 
ville, 1.5 feet; thence to Cincinnati, 2.0 feet; and thence to 
Wheeling, 1.0 foot. My early recollections of the navigation of 
this stream, before the days of the telegraph, are these : The cap¬ 
tain of a river steamer fitted to run on a “ heavy dew,” would 
moor his craft on the river bank and plant a shingle at the shore 
line and watch the .rising of the waters to determine whether it 
were safe to proceed. This shingle formed, in fact, a water-gauge, 
and a rise of two inches diffused joy among the passengers, a pre¬ 
lude of what was to come.. The Nilometer is not more intently 
watched by the dusky Egyptian than was that shingle by us, a 
fair-haired race. No one, except from experience, can form an 
idea of the irksome listlessness, the utter disgust which fell upon 
the unfortunate passenger, who for days was compelled to remain 
aboard an Ohio steamer, tied up to the bank or u stuck ” on a 
sand bar. The brevier et syrtes encountered by the Trojan fleet 
were far less formidable, than the shoals and quicksands encount¬ 
ered by the Ohio, pilot in low water. 

In February, on the breaking up of the winter, the first rise 
usually occurs, which is ten or fifteen feet greater than any other. 
The average spring rise is about twenty-five feet at the mouth, and 
high water continues for six weeks. The next rise, the smallest 
of the three, is in May or June, and is due to the summer rains, 
and lasts at Cairo three or four weeks, and one or two weeks at 
Louisville. Next is the autumnal rise, commencing in Novem¬ 
ber, which, however, is not to be depended upon. The river is 
always low in October—at a time when the inhabitants along its 
borders wish to lay in their winter’s supply of coal. In August 
and September it is only navigable for boats of eighteen inches 
draught. It freezes about Christmas and sometimes remains frozen 
for a month. The usual succession of stages is this: January, 
river frozen; February, breaking up and high; March, high ; 
April, high: May, falls somewhat; June, rises again; July, falls 
and is low ; August, is very low ; September, very low ; October, 
very low ; November, rises ; December, well up. 


RA.IL.ROAD DEVELOPMENT. 


49 


These facts, compiled by the. Topographical Bureau, show that 
between the summer’s drouth and the winter’s ice, there is an in¬ 
terval of only about three months in which the OLio is navigable 
for coal-barges drawing seven feet of water. To remedy these 
defects several plans have been suggested. Long ago Mr Ellet, 
an engineer of considerable reputation, proposed to construct a 
senes of reservoirs at the head of the principal streams, in which 
to collect the surplus water, and dole it out as necessity might 
require; but this plan has never been seriously entertained. The 
Government from time to time has made appropriation for the 
improvement of the navigation, and the plan adopted has been to 
put in wing dams at the head of the more formidable bars, and 
thereby deepen the current: but this has proved a mere make¬ 
shift, the effect being merely to tear out the loose sands at one 
point so as to enable them to accumulate at another. . Aq.an all- 
comprehensive measure, it has been proposed to slack-water the 
entire river, and vague estimates have been made of the cost. 
Without considering the damage which such a plan would inflict 
upon the farming land on the banks of a stream subject to such 
great fluctuations, a convocation of Pittsburgh .steamboat men 
solemnly resolved that the cost would not exceed that of the con¬ 
struction of the Union Pacific Bailroad. Mr. Ellet’s plan of con¬ 
structing reservoirs would cost $60,000,000, and Col. Haup's of 
dams and pools, $42,000,000. Now, this is all very pleasant to 
contemplate, if we are assured that Uncle Sam will foot the bills; 
but there is a power behind the throne, and that power is the 
people. They have more than once evinced a disposition not to 
make appropriations which shall inure solely to a particular dis¬ 
trict. All the expense of the permanent improvement of the Ohio, 
I apprehend, will devolve on its bordering States. 

The cost of transportation in flood time on the Ohio, for bulky 
articles like coal laden in barges, is far less than by any land con¬ 
veyance. While railway transportation reaches a cent and a third 
per ton per mile, river transportation is less than three mills per 
ton per mile. Unfortunately, as has been shown, there are long 
intervals during which navigation is practically suspended. I 
was infomed by a friend who was at E ewburgh (on the Lower 
Ohio) last September, that for nine months not a coal barge had 


50 


MINERAL WELTH AND 


passed that point The precariousness of this navigation subjects 
the coal markets of Cincinnati and Louisville to violent fluctua¬ 
tions. If the autumnal rise ot the waters is delayed a lew weeks, 
or fails to come before the ice sets in, there ensues a coal famine, 
and the supply has to be drawn from distant points and at exoib- 
itant prices. Last autumn the price ol coal in the Cincinnati 
market was 36 cents a bushel ;• in the Louisville market, 32 cents. 
At this time it is respectively 28 and 26 cents. How , it is confi¬ 
dently claimed that if both these cities were connected by dnect 
lines of railway-with' the block coal region of Indiana, they would 
be furnished with an abundant supply of fuel adapted to all steam, 
domestic and smelting purposes, at cheaper rates than pieyail at 
this time. These markets would not be subject to violent and 
ruinous 'fluctuations Such a line of communication will be 
afforded • by the construction of the Cincinnati and Terre-Haute 
Bailway. The distance from the coal-field to Cincinnati is one 
hundred and forty miles, to Louisville one hundied and ten 
miles. Estimating the cost of mining at $1 per ton, and trans¬ 
portation at a cent and one-third per ton pei mile, and u0 cents as 
the'profit of the-mine owner, block coal ought to be delivered on 
the cat iji the! Cincinnati market at $3.36 a ton, or less than 13 
cents a bushel; and in the Louisville market at $o a ton. 

Indianapolis, Feb. 22, 1872. 


XIL 

General Review—The Prospect- 

I here bring to a close my remarks upon the coal and iron re¬ 
sources of the Northwest. These exist in a region where the soil 
is fertile and the climate healthful, and where the rapidity of 
development in population and material wealth has no parallel in 
the previous annals of the human race. Coal and iron, it may be 
confidently affirmed, rest at the base of our modem civilization. 
It is by their union that man has been able to acquire a mastery 
over nature, and to subject her forces to his will. In the steam 
engine, perhaps,- we have the most important example of tnis 



RAILROAD DEVELOPMENT. 


51 


union. How much each year it adds to the world’s wealth ! To 
how vast an extent it displaces the expenditure of human muscle, 
performing a giant’s labor with more than a giant’s strength, and 
jet with a precision and certainty unattainable by human hands! 
It enables us to traverse the ocean and the land with a speed un¬ 
known to our ancestors; and in our machine shops and factories 
day by day, it is silently performing labors equivalent to those of 
many millions of men. The union of coal and iron in their appli¬ 
cation to the various arts, is the mainspring of the progress of 
every dominant nation. We need no better index of the pros¬ 
perity of a people, of their high state of civilization, than is fur¬ 
nished by the amount of iron which they-annually ‘consume. 

The Northwest has hitherto been preeminent as an agricultural 
region. A new era is now dawning upon* it. Capitalized wealth, 
which builds railroads, which opens mines, which erects furnaces, 
factories and machine shops, and which transforms crude materials 
into objects fitted for the comforts and refinements of life, is now 
rapidly flowing into this region, as the most favored in the United 
States. Here, within the lapse of another generation, astonishing 
changes will be wrought; and, in the impulsive /power communi¬ 
cated to this great industrial movement, the Block Coals of In¬ 
diana will be found to play an important part . 

Chicago, April 20, 1872. 













* 



APPENDIX. 



Section of Coal Measures, - 
Assays of Indiana Coals, - & 

Blast Furnaces in Clay County, 

Indiana Block Coal Mines, - 
“ Caking Coal “ 

Di stances, Cincinnati and Terre-Haute Railway;,, 
from Cincinnati to St. Louis, 

“ of Markets, - 



'ft. 




c 



“ I) 
“ E 
F 

• • * 

G 

“ II 


Map of Block Coal Region and its Railway Connections. 








A 


... *. 


• . 

* t. * I 


; • .. 


: . • • * 


. . . V 

• . ■: *'• . . 

, .>•••» , ■ • 

* • . - v 

* • - ••• 


* 

v • 

i - 


9 

♦ 


4 

• •• 


* 




> 




\ 







APPENDIX. 


55 


[Table A.] 


Connected Section of the Coal Measures of Indiana 

ALONG TIIE LINE OF THE 

CINCINNATI AND TERRE-HAUTE RAILWAY. 


FEET. 

43 % 


31% 


30 

5 

14% 

5 

14% 

11 

4 

12 % 

25 

4 

24 

4 


263 


2 

20 




512% 


Coal N ; thin, not workable. 


Coal M j “ 


Coal L ; veiy persistent., * .. 


Coal K; “ . * 

Coal J ; mere streak. 
Coal I ; Main Block. 
Coal H ; mere streak. 


: V ; 


• > 


•A- 


* > • .’«• - 


not persistent, but sometimes 
Coal G- ; ■{ expands to a workable thick¬ 
ness. Blopk-lik^ instruct ure. 

* * . 

Coal F ; characters similar to»G*/^ * 


# 

• * 


Heavy beds of sandstone—“Millstone 
Grit;” rarely containing pebbles. 




Coal B ; rarely workable. 


Coal A ; often workable 


Total.25 feet of workable Coal. 




















































SEAM. 


56 


APPENDIX. 


[Table B.] 

ASSAYS OF THE PRINCIPAL COALS OF INDIANA. 


L 


L 


L 


K 


I 


I 


DESIGNATION. < 

WATER AT 

200° F. 

0 i 

w 2 

a § 

* d 

VOLATILE 

MATTER. 

ASHES. 

COLOR. 

Spencer County — 

" Knob . 

* 

4-30 

61-65 

31-16 

2-98 

Gray. 

• •* 

Davies* County— 

\ 4 ** 

. . - Wilson’s.*.', f ......,. 

*«* • » . * • 

* * • . • r 

o-oo 

59-69 

34-17 

6-14 

Reddish. 

'tv 

P. • 

Sullivan County — 

•*. f Wilson’s.. ,....:.. 

3-00 

52-00 

43-00 

2-00 

White. 

• v ?.*. 

S-f, Ioanna’s . 

• 

. # < 

* 

5-00 

54-00 

38-50 

2-50 

G ray. 

* 

# * 

FoU5st>w:n County— 






i Thomas’s . *. . 

. • . 

3.00 

59-80 

32-70 

4-50 

Brown. 

■ * OiraliooclV. .... 

7-52 

56.33 

29-88 

6-27 

Gray. 

• i* Townley’e..-, .. 

4-70 

52-36 

32-03 

10-91 

Red. 

. * Myers’s.. 

2-02 

55-57 

38-37 

7-04 

Red. 

Parke County— 






Kyle’s. 

3-27 

58-04 

30-03 

8-66 

Red. 

f Batty’s. 

3.00 

56-00 

38-50 

2-50 

White. 

Beale’s. 

3-88 

57T5 

35-86 

3T1 

Reddish. 

Fountain County— 






f Kirkland’s. 

G'65 

57-55 

33-83 

2-06 

Gray. 

Parke County*— 






* Barker’s. ..... 

•• 

2-37 

57-21 

37-42 

3-00 

Gray. 


* Coala assayed by Prof. Delafontaine, at request of Dr. Foster, 
t Cojfels as>aycd-bv Prof. C ox, ai.d assays contained in Ins reports. 





















































SEAM, 


APPENDIX. 


57 


◄ 

w 

« 

DESIGNATION. 

« h 

« y 

6J 0 

S o 

5 o 

* 

FIXED 

CARBON. 

VOLATILE 

MATTER. 

ASHES. 

COLOR. 


* Russell’s. 

0-80 

Cl-07 

32-46 

5-67 

Gray. 


* Sillimr.n’s. 

1-32 . 

* 5845 

36-53 

4 00 

Gray. 


f Buchanan’s. 

4-20 

62-50 

31-00 

2-00 

White. 

I 

Clay County— 

f Barner’s. 

4-00 

57 00 

.3.7-50 , 

r 150 

White. 


f Garlick and Collins’. 

8-50 

57-50 

GO 

Mk- 

• • 

• o 
o 

3 0j3-‘ 

, . » - 

r Lead. 


f Kniglitsville. 

9-00 

59/80 

30-9*0.'. 

‘..0-30 

White. 

* - * 


f McClelland’s. 

5-00 

54-70* 

♦ 

38-80 

150 

White. 


f Star . 

3-50 

61-50 

32-50 
» t 

.250 

White* 


* Stedman’s.. 

2-00 

61-69 

.3057-j 

• 

■* 614 

•Gray. 

* * .W 


* Wagstafi’s . 

247 

56-79 

, 39-63 

i*4i 
* • % 

% 

White. 

I 

Owen County — 

* Oberhaltzer’s. 

0-80 

61-35 

• 

*• ■ , 

• 

• • 

-3.4-20, 

‘.•8-65 

% 

• 

’White. 

• 

I 

Daviess County— 



• * * 

• 

• 

♦ 


* Clarke’s. 

o-oo 

53 08 

36-80 

15-90 

White. 


f Clarke’s. 

4-50 

57-30 

34-70 

350 

White. 

X 

Spencer County — 

• 

* Staab’s. 

1-80 

58-23 

37-11 

2-80 

White. 


* Staab’s .. 

8-11 

58-28 

29 57 

4 04 

Yellow 


f Staab’s. 

1-80 

54-00 

42-60 

1-60 

White. 

G 

Clay County — 

f Carbon Coal Co’s. 

3-40 

55-25 

39-85 

150 

« 

White. 


f Garlick and Collins’. 

2-75 

57-90 
• 4 . * 

. 35-85 

350 

White. 


f Garlick and Collins’. 

2-10 

57-95 

37-35 

2-60 

-*- 

White. 


* Coals assayed by Prof. Delafontaine, at request of Dr. Foster, 
t Coals assayed by Prof. Cox, and assays contained" m his reports. 











































... . [Table, Q.] 

BLAST-FURNACES.-IN OLAY - '-COUNTY, INDIANA. 

• 9 , ' 


APPENDIX. 


Number of Men em¬ 
ployed. 

150 

30 


Daily Yield of Pig 
Iron. 

TONS. 

28 

18 

45 

15 

20 

9 

Daily Consumption 
of Limestone. 

TONS. 

1G 

10 

24 

10 


Daily Consumption 
of Ore.. * . - . 

£ iT5 i> O LO 

C 'T' CO O 


Daily Consumption 
of Fuel. 

* , . t 

• i t 

TONS. 

70 

45 

100 

40 


Diameter of Tunnel 
Head. 

ft 

g 

9 

JLHHki 


• 

Diameter of Hearth. 

FEET. 

5 

4 

6 

4 


Diameter of Boshes. 

w ^ O 07 O 07 

W rH t-H tH tH t—1 

• 

' .Height of Furnace. 

• - * 

► - • « 

FEET. 

GO 

45 

50 

40 

50 

• 

.Capital Stock. 

• • 

4 

$250,000 

80,000 


' * • 

V a t 

Cost of Construction. 

$150,000 

70,000 

1 GO, 000 


Year Built. 

1867 

• • 

1869 

j 18G7 
( 1868 

1867 


Hot or Cold Blast. 

pq pq pq pq pq 

W W w K W 


Location. 

Brazil. 

( ( 

Ivnightsville 

Harmony... 

Terre Haute 

H 

O 

* 

/ Sfe • 

. '§■ 

Brazil. 

Lafayette. 

(2 stacks.) 
Ivnightsville... 

Planet. 

Viffo. 







































































APPENDIX. 


59 


[Table D.] 

INDIANA BLOCK COAL. 


Details of Mines now Working . 


• 

it • 

Capacity 
in Tons 
per Day. 

Mining 
now 
in Tons 
per Day. 

Number 
of Men 
employed. 

Garlick & Collins. • * 

600 
1000 
450 
. 600 
300 - 

. boo 
200 
380' 
120. 

■ 125 
200' ' 

250 
500 
300 
400 
200 
' 200 
150 

• • 300 . 
100V 
100’ •. 
150 

80 

100 

75 

80 

40 v 
50 

30 

80 

.* 20 

• * 25 

. : :30 

• 

Niblock, Zimmerman & Alexander.. ^ 

Otter Creek Coal Company., . . 

Indiana Coal Company.... '' 

Star Mine.!.:.. 

Gartsherry & Co..? 

J. W. McClelland & Co.; . 

Clay County Coal Company. 

Weaver Coal Company! .. I. .... 

Butch, Dixon & Andrews.... 

Brazil Block Coal Company. 

Ormsby Coal Company.^ 

150' 

100 

Yeach Coal Company (new). 

75 

Bartlett Coal Company... 

‘ . 1^0 

100 

20 

Great Western Coal and Mining Company. 

’ 50 

20 

Morrison & Woodruff. 

120 

• 100 

• • 20 

A# 5 

' . 10 

•Ws. 

• 10 

Morris Coal Company. 



Strain’s mine . 



Armstrong’s mine. 


tfo* 

Robert Guest.; 


• 8a' 


• 

4 . 

. # • 

• 

Total at Brazil. 

’ 4065 ' ' 

'• 300 

“'3265 .* 

. '775 

Carbon Station. 

Carbon Coal Company. 

• . 2Q0 

• • 100 

• * < 

. 40 

Clay County Coal Company.... 

•' * 200 

*20 


<»• 

• 

Total at Brazil and Carbon. 

5165 

3565 

♦. 835 



Note.— Daily shipment from Brazil at present is 171 cars, which is not half the number the 
demand calls for. 


[Table E.] . • !. 

CAKING COALS MINED IN BRAZIL DISTRICT. 

Collated November , 1871. . • 


- 

Tons. 

Tons. 

Men. 

Great Western Coal Company. 

800 

500 

100 

Greencastle Coal Company.. 

120 

100 

20 

Bailey Coal Company. 

' 300 

250 

50 

Bartlett Coal Company.... 

400 

300 

60 

Webster Mining Company (new). i.... 

80 

50 

10 

Williams Alining Company (new).: 

80 

• 50 

10 

Six other Alines—names not given. 

700 

600 

120 

Total Brazil caking coals. 

2480 

1850 

370 

Alined in Davies County (caking).* . 

1200 

800 

180 

Total. 

8480 

2650 

550 

















































































60 


T APPENDIX 


[Table F.] 

CINCINNATI AND TERRE-HAUTE RAILWAY. 


Distances—Main Line. 

» » 

Cincinnati to State Line......... 

.State Line to Greensburg, Ind'. 

Greensburg to Columbus,- “ . 

Columbus to Bloomington, . “ :.,;.... 

Bloomington to Bessemer, 44 ... 

Bessemer .to Terre-Haute,’'' “ . 

* 

* . * Branches. 


MILES. 

.19.5 

.37.4 

.24.6 

.37.7 

.22.4 

.40.3 


.Bessemer to Merom.39.5 

* Lateral Branches...78.1 


Main line and branches, 280 miles being in the State of Indiana, 

..•'and 19| in the State of Ohio.299.5 


' .. * [Table G.] 

» « # • • 

. ’-.' DISTANCES FROM CINCINNATI TO ST. LOUIS. 

• * . 


Via Indianapolis and St. Louis Railroad.376 

44 St. Louis, YandaUa, Terre-IIaute and Indianapolis Railroad. 353 

4 4 \Ohio and Mississippi Railroad.340 

•’ 4 ‘ . Cincinnati and Terre-Haute Railroad. 328 


. . -. [Table H.] 

DISTANCES OF MARKETS 


In an Air Line from Bessemer. 


To Louisville. 

MILES. 

.. 100 

To St. Louis... 

44 Cincinnati. 

. 130 

4 4 Cairo. 

44 Chicago. 

. 175 

44 Keokuk.... 

44 Toledo.. 

.230 

44 Hannibal... 

4 4 Sandusky. 

...■. 260 

44 Rock Island 

44 Cleveland. '... 

... .. 316 

44 Indianapolis 

4 4 Detroit.!. 

275 

44 Terre-Haute 

44 Nashville.. /. 

. 200 

44 Evansville . 


MILES. 

. 175 
. 180 
. 240 
. 225 
. 230 
. 60 
. 30 

. 90 






































fult 


CEDAfrttAPIDS 


AURORA 


TO LED 


ROPHETST. 


GOSHEN 


8 RIMFIEL 


WAJLTON 


'MENOOTA /<30ll!ET 

ASALL 


o\WANATAH 


K ISIANO 


U BURN 


PLYMOUTH 


DEFIANCE 


COlUMBU 


.WARSAW 


LACROSSE 


UREAU, 


^STR^ATOR 


OW.IGHT 


EN 0 NA n 


WAYN 


fLACON 


(//MONMO 


ALE 68 URG 


.WATSEKA 


FAJRBURG 


EORIA 


OOM5NGTON. 


(OXFORD 


KOKOMO 


EKEN 


3 USHNELL 


ART! 3RD 


FRANKFORT 


DEI.AVAN 


vATS "COLFAX 


ATTICA 


•LINTON 


NCOLN 


'dllAMPAIGNE, 


SVILLI 


f / weVc'astle' 1 - 

-JX'JILTAPOLIH 


V!ONO 


CAMQRIDGCCr 


RUSHV 


SHELBYViLLE 


AJAT TOON 


RAMA, ST 


WHITEHALi 


.t*^C X <>*’ 

JpTCP r-Ng HAOTE 


AMILTON 


AT! 


C5NC!N 


LITCHFIELD 


CF/FINGNA m 


ME ROM 


RNON, 


ALTO 


Vincen; 


•FL9FIA 


ENTRALIA' 


JASPER 

\lllm 

WWW TINGS U R G 


PRINCETOK'W 


MTVERNOI 


NEW ALBANY. 


FRANKFORT 


CARM 


OUISVIILE 


IGTOM 


TAMARO/ 


EVAN SV» LL^M Wy} && (k 

SjiEWBURG / yV C ft TV ’ \\ 
ja^^LjTEllJCITY \J 
tLTo »' 

ifPSON V '' Crawl sv. 

VOWtHQPFo 


ROLL A 


mm 

mJrnmK 


1 MOUNT- 
•VERNONS 


tv&xi* ft 

^G THE BLOCK . 


DU 9 UP 1 N 


CHESTEK 


BLOCK tOtt 


V SHAW 
NfcETOWI 


* 



v 


























































































- /* 




\ 


9 





' 




















